Valentine's Day
by MidnightRose24
Summary: Nico & Thalia have never liked Valentine's Day. Fights, chaos, and monsters just make the "holiday" worse. Now camp is being attacked and a traitor is among them. Will they be able to stop them in time? *DISCONTINUED/IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REWRITTEN*
1. Valentine's Day Sucks

**Disclaimer: seriously? Do I really need to do this? *sigh* Okay, I don't own Percy Jackson. *tear***

**4/4/11 NOTE: This story is very experimental and at times, bipolar. It was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but then I decided to make it continuous. Then it was supposed to just be a drama of them at Camp. Thalia was going to be falling for Nico, but there was going to be some other guy that had tried to rape Thalia and he would come back. But now it's about a quest (best way to go if you ask me). So, forgive me for changing it up and causing confusion at times. I hope you guys still enjoy this story aside from its momentary chameleon-like plot.**

**4/6/11 NOTE: Seeing as this has been going on for a while now, I might as well end it right now. I understand that there is quite a lot of cussing in the first couple of chapters and I put a warning in the summary, as well as having cut down on it, so I would appreciate if you all would skip with the comments on it. Thank you. **

**Nico's POV**

Oh joy. Its Aphrodite's day, A.K.A Valentine's Day. The day that most girls looked forward to and most guys didn't care about…unless you were a son of Aphrodite, then it was as huge to you as it was to the girls.

Yeah, tell me that I'm bitter or that it's just because I'm single, but it's all just going to go right over my head. I'm not listening. I hate Valentine's Day. Period. End of story. It was so overrated and boring and fluffy, and worst of all, pink. I shuddered just at the thought of all that pink. The red wasn't so bad because I could always pretend that it was just blood all over the place.

I walked out of my cabin (Aphrodite decided that we all have to go celebrate at camp unless we have a legitimist reason for skipping. Unfortunately, I didn't have one.), dreading the rest of the night. The Aphrodite cabin always loved to go overboard on the night of Valentine's because it was "especially romantic at night." I guess they were just thinking how romantic it is how it would be for lovers to swap virginities tonight. I thought it was plain stupid.

"Hey, Nico!"

I already knew that it was Percy, but it was kind of surprising that he was looking for me instead of being all lovey-dovey with Annabeth.

"Hey," I greeted him, "why aren't you with Annabeth? In fact, why are you at camp? You have a good reason for skipping."

"She's getting changed for dinner. And it's nice to see everyone here- or at least the people who showed up. Any ways, we wanted to make sure that you were all right, you know, being all alone tonight."

"I won't be alone. There will be plenty of Aphrodite's kids running around trying to get everyone to join in on their Valentine's celebration."

"Well, that's true, but…" Percy trailed off, running his hand through his jet black hair.

"You don't have to worry about me. I'll be fine," I assured him.

Last year had been the first year that I had ever been in love. Her name had been Mandy and, of all days, she chose Valentine's Day to tell me that she had been cheating on me for a couple weeks and was pregnant with another guy's baby. It was going to be the only Valentine's Day that I would try to enjoy and spend time with someone I loved. If I had hated Valentine's Day then, it was nothing compared to how much I hate now.

"Well, okay," Percy sounded uncertain and his sea-green eyes were full of doubt," If you need anything just call me okay?"

"Okay."

Yeah, I didn't have any plans to call him for anything unless I was dying. He and Annabeth were going out and I wasn't going to ruin or interrupt it. Besides, it was one heart break that happened over a year ago. Did he really not have faith in me to let it go? Gods. I understand that I hold grudges, but really? That's just offending.

After Percy left to go get changed, I decided to walk down to Fireworks Beach. I was surprised to see Thalia sitting there in her black skinny jeans and her poor Camp Half-Blood shirt that had seen a sharpie and scissors one too many times.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

I guess I hadn't made it clear that I had been walking up behind her because she jumped when she heard my voice.

"Oh, hey. Well, since I'm not a part of the huntresses anymore and Percy and Annabeth, and pretty much the whole camp, are making out and spending Valentine's Day together, I have nothing better to do. Plus, Valentine's Day sucks and I don't want to be around the 'joy' of it all," she rolled her eyes at the whole "joy" thing.

I sat down beside her.

"I'm right there with you on that last one. Well, I don't have anything better to do either, so I guess I'm with you on everything," I rambled on.

"What's your reason for hating it so much? Just because of all the pink?" she gestured to my all black outfit: black jeans, black Linkin Park t-shirt, black Converse.

"Not exactly. Last year, the first girl that I was ever in love with- Mandy- told me that she was pregnant with another guy's baby. She'd been cheating on me for a couple weeks. I had already bought her a present and set reservations up for dinner. I was really going to try to spend my whole day like everyone else does on Valentine's Day," I paused," The pink is pretty horrible, though."

Thalia laughed. "That really does suck about your girlfriend," she said sympathetically.

"Yeah, well, I guess I should've been more insistent with the questions when Mandy suddenly became 'busy.'"

"You can't expect to know every time something is wrong. And you can't exactly question people every time something suddenly comes up, because it may just be that- something unexpected comes up."

"Yeah, that's true," I paused, "It's kind of weird to hear you say something comforting to a guy," I teased.

"Shut up," she slapped my arm," I can say whatever I want to say to a guy now," she got kind of a sad look in her eyes. It wasn't completely noticeable, but it was there.

"Do you miss it as much as before?" I knew that it was dangerous to ask her because she could easily shock the hell out of me, but my ADHD took over before I could stop it.

"Well…" she looked out towards the ocean and waited a couple of minutes before answering, "Yes and no. I'm glad that I get to be here with everyone again, but I miss the huntresses. They were like family- still are, I guess."

_Thank the gods! She didn't shock me to death…or to my Dad's place, whichever one you prefer._

"Oh," was all I could say for a few moments. Talking about the huntresses was bringing up memories of Bianca, so I didn't talk for a few minutes in fear that my voice would crack.

_Why can't I ever think about it without freaking out? No matter how hard I try to talk about it and accept it-_

Thalia interrupted my thoughts, "Why do you care if I miss them?" She didn't sound rude, just curious. Probably because she knew that Bianca's death still hurt me even after six years.

"I don't really know. I guess I'm just making small talk. Plus, you still look sad when someone mentions them, so I wanted to know how much you hate not being with them."

"It definitely sucks ass that they abandoned me, but they have to do what they have to do, so I might as well move on."

The one thing that bothered me about Thalia not being with the huntresses was that I had no idea why they abandoned her. I would ask, but then I might piss her off and I really don't want to do that. I was already treading in dangerous waters, so I might as well not push my luck. Maybe I'll ask some other time.

"Right. So…" I trailed off not knowing what to say.

"You still emo as ever?" she smirked, going back to her old self-the Thalia that I knew and loved.

_What the hell? Did I just fucking say that I love her? It must be Aphrodite messing with me. She loves to do that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's it, Aphrodite was messing with me. I don't love Thalia and she doesn't love me. Her dad killed my mom and I don't love Thalia. It was like how Percy and Annabeth used to be. Oh shit! Used to be. Now they're completely and totally in love. Stop freaking out, Nico! But I have a good reason to freak out! Am I really arguing with myself? I must be going crazy._

"Are you okay? Is something on your mind?"

Damn it! I must have had a crazed look on my face giving my thoughts away.

"It's just that it's kind of weird to think that I'm sixteen now and you are too, now that you're not in the hunt," I wasn't lying because it was weird, but I wasn't exactly telling the truth either because that wasn't what was on my mind- at least not right now.

"Oh, yeah, it's weird, but then again, if you're going to judge weirdness you shouldn't do that at Camp Half-Blood…or in any other situation where a demigod is involved."

"That's true."

I looked over at her to find that she was just staring right back at me. I couldn't read her expression, which bothered me because it didn't make figuring out what to say next any easier.

"What are you doing for the rest of the night?"

I hadn't thought of that. Shit. How was I going to escape all of the crappy love songs at the sing-along tonight?

"I haven't thought that far ahead."

Thalia laughed, "I wouldn't have expected you to."

I scolded her, "Thanks so much, Pine Cone."

"You're welcome, Dead Boy. Now, if you're done with all of the scolding, what do you say you and me go somewhere to escape the sing-along tonight?"

"Glad to know that we share the same feelings about that."

"Of course."

"So, if we do sneak out what are we going to do?"

"I don't know. The mall, the movies. Anywhere that doesn't suck."

"If you sneak off to your tree after dinner I can meet you there and we can shadow travel our asses out of here."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Good," I said while standing up, "I'll meet you there."

I brushed the back of my jeans off and walked back to my cabin. I wasn't completely sure of what to think about going out alone with Thalia tonight, but I knew one thing- tonight was going to be one hell of a night.

**Whoa! This is my first continuous story! How exciting is that? Very! xD Any ways, what do you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Anything I can improve on? Press the magic button and let me know in a review. :]**


	2. A Trip to the Mall

**Disclaimer: I still don't own PJO. T_T**

**Thalia's POV**

I walked back to my cabin thinking about what just happened. Had I really just asked Nico to hang out with me, like just the two of us? What in the Hades was going on with me?

It couldn't be that bad because I wasn't dressing up to hang out with him. I was going as I was already (minus my Camp Half-Blood shirt. I couldn't walk out in public with that. I'll just change it to my black 3Oh!3 shirt). This wasn't a fucking date. I couldn't care less if I looked like shit. I was just hanging out with a friend. Yeah, that's it. Nothing more. Nothing, nada, zip- zero.

I climbed up the stairs to my cabin and swung the door open- it smelled like it had just rained.

_Home sweet home. _

I stepped onto the Oak Harvest wood flooring and looked around my cabin making sure that everything was as it should be. It was just a pathetic way of making sure that not _everything_ was changing.

My walls were painted a sky blue, while shapes that looked like clouds were on the ceiling. My bedding was also a sky blue which then made me think of how blue both my and Percy's room were. It must just be a family thing- except for Nico. His room was all black- just like the rest of his stuff.

I went and sat down on my bed and opened the drawer to my small, white bed-side table. I rummaged through the drawer for a few seconds before I found it.

I looked down at the picture. It was…a bad memory.

_My gods, I really am changing. Just one picture can stir up so many damn emotions- that didn't used to be normal for me. _

I put the picture back in the back of the drawer- making sure to pile stuff on top of it so it couldn't be easily found- and closed the drawer.

I looked over at my Oak wooden desk and sighed. Having homework over the weekend sucked- especially if it was math homework. I walked over to my desk, opened up my backpack, and began to finish those damn math problems.

By the time I was done, it was dinner time. I became jumpy over throughout dinner, thinking about what Nico and I were going to do. I couldn't bring myself to look over at him. I was afraid that if I did, I would realize how ridiculous it is for us to be hanging out one-on-one on Valentine's Day and bail out of it. Then I would be stuck here.

I could already imagine what people would say if they knew that Nico and I had been together instead of just in our cabins, not wanting to participate in the sing-along- even though it's true that we didn't want to participate. That made me even more jumpy.

Eventually, I made myself think of other things- like, wondering how my friends at school were doing, or how Percy and Annabeth's date was going- and that seemed to slightly calm me down.

When it was time for the sing-along, I made sure to walk slowly so that people would see me, walk by me and, hopefully, think that I was behind them. Then, when I made sure that no one was looking, I made a run for it. I made it to my tree, no problem.

About a minute later, Nico stepped out from the shadow of the tree. It still kind of freaked me out whenever I saw him do that. I mean, think about, he could do a lot of things just by shadow traveling- not always good things. I shoved the thought out of my mind- if I was going to be hanging out with Nico I didn't want to be thinking about how easily he could get away with rape or something.

He turned to me and quickly blinked a couple times.

"Did you really use that much energy?" I teased.

"Shut up."

I laughed. One of the reasons why I didn't bail was because Nico could always make me laugh. He was just naturally funny. He was also cu- never mind. I never said anything.

He started walking down the hill without me.

"What, we're walking? Seriously? I thought we were shadow traveling," I did not want to walk all the way to wherever the hell we were going.

"Sorry, I used too much energy," he smirked.

Gods, he was such a smartass.

"That's such bull-"

He quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me to his chest. The darkness swallowed us and it was suddenly harder for me to breathe. It ended as quickly as it began, and we were suddenly standing in front of a mall somewhere in Manhattan.

"Gods, you want to warn me next time?" I slapped his chest.

"Sorry," he laughed.

I suddenly realized how close we were standing and how Nico still had his hand on my forearm. His touch was colder than a regular person's, but it didn't seem unpleasant to me.

_What is wrong with me?_

I pulled away and started to walk towards the entrance to a Macy's. Nico caught up with me quickly and pulled the door open for me. He earned points for that one.

I looked around the store and- to my disgust- it was full of pink and way too many Valentine's decorations. We walked quickly through the store and out into the middle of the mall.

"Which way is Hot Topic?"

That was pretty much all I cared about.

"I think it's over on the left side of the mall," Nico started walking down that way.

We walked past a Cinnabun, No Fear, some jewelry shop, and other uninteresting stores. We just ignored the people at the booths that were trying to get us to buy some stupid shit from them. Some chick tried to get me to agree to her straightening my hair. Why in the hell would I want her to straighten my hair in the middle of the mall?

Finally, we escaped those annoying sales people and walked into the entrance to Hot Topic. They were playing 21 Guns by Green Day. Gods, I loved this place!

We headed over to the back of the store where most of the band t-shirts were and I looked up at the huge collage of t-shirts they had. About ninety percent of them were black. That was fine with me.

"Ew!" Nico suddenly yelped.

"What?" I was freaked out by his sudden outburst.

"Justin Beiber does not fucking belong here!" he looked disgusted.

I looked over at a purple shirt with Justin's stupid smiling face on it. I shuddered. Nico was right, he didn't belong here.

"His shit should be in the Disney store or something," that seemed logical to me.

"I can't look at it anymore," Nico turned on his heel and walked to the other side of the store.

Damn. The Green Day shirts were by Justin Beiber's shirts, so I would just have to endure it. I quickly grabbed a white shirt with a bunch of gray squiggly lines on it and "Green Day" written in green across the middle of it.

Thank gods I brought twenty-five bucks with me. After I paid for my shirt, I went over to the guy's section of the store where Nico was standing.

"Find anything?" I asked.

"Nope," he paused," I own most of these shirts. I can't decide if that's a good or a bad thing," he turned to look at me.

"Take it as a good thing- you don't have a shitty taste in clothes. Why would that be bad?"

"Justin Beiber's fans probably think I have shitty taste in clothes. And it might be bad because I don't wear all of these shirts that often and they aren't cheap. I think I waste too much money," he nodded his head.

"Some might say that they like your clothes just because they're posers and want you to think that they're scene. And if you're so worried about wasting money, just give it to me," I laughed," Kidding."

"Ew. Posers," he shook his head," why can't people just be themselves? Zeus almighty."

"Zeus is almighty," I smirked.

"Hades is almighty," he shot back.

"Yeah right," I laughed.

"Zeus' powers barely mean shit down in the Underworld."

I slapped his chest while shocking him at the same time. He jumped and took a step back.

"Watch it or I'm gonna dye all of your clothes pink," he threatened.

"If you do, I'll shock you until you can't have kids- assuming you don't act completely stupid in battle and die, or knock some girl up," I shot back.

_Oops._

His eyes hardened at the last part of my statement. He bore a **freighting **resemblance of Hades.

"Don't count on me knocking any sluts up," he growled.

With that, he turned on his heel, and walked out of the store.

I quickly walked out and looked around, but couldn't find him.

Damn him! He probably shadow traveled his ass out of here.

Well, there goes my ride home.

**A/N: Oh snap! Nico's pissed! xD **

**I would've updated yesterday, but I had a soccer game (I scored a goal and we tied our game 2-2 :D ) and my dad had a work thing that we went to. It was at some museum. It was actually fun. Ha-ha. **

**So any ways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The picture that Thalia looked at will be explained soon enough. *Suspense!* Just kidding. Ha-ha! And I have math homework (and history -_-) to do so I just put that in there (I'm a procrastinator xD ) and it's supposed to be a Saturday in the story, just to let you know. And I've never been to New York, so I'm just explaining the mall as if it were the one by my house. Lol. No Fear is a kind of sports store that's at my mall. I think it's for boxing or something. Who knows. Lol. Also, the Justin Beiber thing is definitely what I think. He. Does. Not. Belong. At. Hot Topic! My God! -_- Also, who wants their hair straightened in the middle of the mall? Not me!**

**By the way, that Green Day shirt is seriously a shirt that I almost bought. They didn't have my size. :[**

**Thank you so much for all of the alerts, and adding to favorites, and all of the hits, and reviewing. You guys are awesome. :D So please review. :]**


	3. The Magic of Macy's

**Nico's POV**

Gods! That bitch! I confined in her about Mandy and then she's telling _me _to not knock any chick up. That is so…so…Thalia! That's what it is. It's so like Thalia to do that.

How could I even think that I…have feelings for her. Yeah, I said it! I might as well just admit it and get it over with. Isn't admitting something the first step to getting over something? Something like that.

I stopped pacing across the small opening in the forest. I wasn't exactly sure where I was, but I think it was somewhere in Virginia.

Damn. How long have I been out here? It's getting dark. I still have to give _her_ a lift back home. Then I can be rid of her for good for the night.

I sighed before stepping into a shadow that a tree had created. I had landed in a bush just outside of the mall. I made sure that no one was looking- it looks suspicious if you just step out of a bush, I mean, who hangs out in a bush?- before stepping out of the bush and back into the mall.

There was a clock on the wall of some Pat & Oscars. 7:30. Damn. I had been gone for almost a half an hour.

_Well, I better go get her._

I briskly walked past a bunch of random stores back to Hot Topic. I have no idea where Thalia would be, but Hot Topic is the best lead that I've got.

Never mind.

I spun around and looked to the left as I heard someone scream bloody murder. A couple of seconds later, I saw a group of people running towards me- well, not exactly towards me, I just happened to be standing right where they were headed- screaming and yelling about how everyone needs to "get out" and "run for their lives" and "do their best to make it out alive." I have to admit, whoever said "do your best to make it out alive" made me laugh and they earned some respect for being realistic.

But I'm done with laughing, for now, because now I have to go clean up Thalia's mess that she made. At least, I'm assuming it's her who caused this mess.

I sprinted down to where it looked like the crowd was coming from. I ran past Hollister- gods, you need a gas mask and a flashlight to be able to shop in there- and saw people running out of Macy's.

_That's the magic of Macy's._

I ran in and saw Thalia charge a hell hound. Her spear and shield were out in front of her. The giant face of Medusa, which was on Thalia's shield, made me hesitate before I continued to run towards the fight.

Thalia swung her spear out and smacked the hellhound in the face. I saw some sparks fly off the hellhound and I was glad that it wasn't me- getting shocked by Thalia hurts like you wouldn't believe. Unfortunately, the hellhound was still going strong and it was even more pissed off.

Thalia was a good fighter- okay, she was amazing- but I wasn't sure how well she could handle this one.

I jumped over what seemed like an infinite amount of clothes that were strewn all across the floor, and happened to see something out of the corner of my left eye. It was another hellhound. Shit.

This one decided to go after me. It lunged at me and barely missed landing on me. Deciding that Thalia could last on her own while I took care of this one, I leaned down and pulled my sword out of the ground. I know, pretty cool, huh? But anyways, back to the fight.

I swung my sword at the hellhound and it jumped out of the way at the last second. I swung again and I hit it this time. But it hit me with its paw at the same time.

I flew backwards and slammed into something- someone- and we both hit the wall with an uncomfortable amount of force.

I lay on my back for a moment until I felt a sharp pain run up my entire spine.

"Damn it!" I yelled out. That hurt like a bitch.

"Get off, dumbass!" Thalia yelled from underneath me.

She was lying in a kind of diagonal way, with her head leaning towards the left. I was lying on top of her with her legs underneath my lower back.

As soon as she shocked me, I jumped up before she could do it again. I looked around to see what damage had been done. The hellhounds had been killed- for now- by both of us and aside from all the clothes being everywhere, looking like a tornado had just hit, and some racks knocked over, there wasn't that much damage.

_That's a first._

I looked back at Thalia to see her glaring at me in a way where I expected her hair to catch on fire just from being so furious. Or maybe her eyes.

She stood up abruptly and stalked out of the store. I didn't want to, but I ran to catch up with her.

"Leave. Me. The. Hell. Alone," she said through her teeth.

"And just how do you think you're getting home?" I rolled my eyes. I mean seriously, she didn't have enough money for a cab and I don't know how long it would take for someone else to drive here and get her. Did she even have anyone to call for help?

"I can find my own way home," she sped up to where she was almost running.

I matched her pace, "I don't be with you anymore than you want to be with me, so just let me take you back to camp and then we can finally be rid of each other," gods, I wanted to get out of here.

"You can leave. I'm not going anywhere with you and you better not touch me," she warned me.

"Why are _you_ pissed at _me_? I'm not the one who's taking other people's misfortunes and shoving it back in their face like it's some kind of joke. I'm not the one who's being such a bitch!"

"I don't shove people's misfortunes back in their face. I know it isn't a joke. And I really don't care if you think I'm a bitch. You're opinion means nothing to me!"

"Everything you just said is bullshit. Now answer my question. Why are you mad at me?"

"I could've handled that on my own. But no, you had to come back after having one of your stupid, moody meltdowns and mess everything up. And thank you so much for crushing me with your fat ass!"

That is such a lie. My ass is not fat. It's pretty damn great.

"Yeah, you're right; I ruined everything by saving your ass. You're one hundred percent right and I'm wrong," my voice oozed sarcasm.

"You did ruin it. If you want to save my ass, try moving yours out of the way for once."

I was so damn sick of this. She thought she was pissed, but I knew that I had her beat in that department. Hades' kids could get pretty damn pissed when they wanted to.

"I'll keep that in mind for next time. And don't forget whose father is going to be judging you when you die."

Once again, I grabbed her arm, but this time I didn't pull her close- I kept her at arm's length. Since everyone was outside of the mall I didn't have to check for bystanders. I stepped into a shadow that some abandoned booth had made and shadow traveled back to where Thalia's tree was.

I swung her arm away from me before she had the chance to shock me and stalked off to my cabin.

If you ask me, my cabin is pretty damn awesome. It has torches on the outside with green fire that never goes out and the outside is all black with pictures of skeletons on the outside that looked like they were worshiping the cabin. There were skulls on the door and when I opened the door the smell of _my_ home greeted me. It was the smell of death.

You may think of rotting bodies, but that's not the smell that I'm talking about. I mean a sort of musky smell that gives you the sense that a lot of history has happened in whatever place you're at.

I kicked off my converse and the dark cherry wood flooring felt smooth beneath my feet. I went over to the left side of my room and lay down on my bed. The softness and squishiness of the memory foam relaxed some of my muscles. When I turned my head to look around my cabin, I saw my black leather couch that my father had given me when I had first built my cabin, in the middle of the room, sort of off to the right of the door. A wooden desk was on the back wall with a leather office chair.

Looking at that chair makes me think of all the times that I've procrastinated my Greek homework and, instead, spent my time spinning around and around while listening to my iPod. Those were some pretty good times.

I lay on my back thinking about anything and everything. My thoughts were along the lines of this: "Is the sing-along over? I'm pretty sure it is." "I wonder what they sang. Probably some crappy love songs." "I hope I don't get in trouble for ditching. Kitchen duty is horrible. And boring." "When's Linkin Park's new CD coming out? Is it already out?" "Ozzy Osborne is pretty weird, but he has some good songs." "Monkeys are awesome. Too bad they throw poop at people." "I'm hungry for lemon meringue pie." "Do I have homework this weekend? I forgot. Oh, gross. I do have homework." "Math homework sucks. How can Athena's children like math?" "It's too quite in here. I need music." "Music is life."

I walked over to my desk and grabbed my iPod off of the top of it. It took me couple seconds to decide what I wanted to listen to. In the end, I chose "A Place to Die" by Five Finger Death Punch.

I lay back on my bed and finally thought about the thing that I had avoided for the past hour or so.

What was I going to do now? I mean, I can't just avoid Thalia forever. I can go home tomorrow morning, but what am I going to do next time I see her? Ignore her? Should I just act like nothing ever happened? I'm not going over and apologizing- I didn't do anything wrong!

Oh, forget it. I'll play it by ear. Whatever happens- happens.

I suddenly yawned, realizing how much energy I had used. I was so tired.

I couldn't help it; the last thing that went through my mind before I passed out was how Thalia's eyes looked so intense when she got pissed. It was beautiful.

Oh gods. I'm turning into a sap. Fuck.

**A/N: WARNING!: Extremely long author's note!**

**I'm so sorry for the lack of update! Don't kill me! D:**

**Alright, if you guys haven't noticed by now, I like to include a lot of random things in my author's notes. So let us get started with that.**

**Most of Nico's thoughts from when he was laying on his bed were my thoughts. Lemon meringue pie is delicious. Nico admitted that he liked Thalia in the beginning because he wants to get over it, so it isn't too OOC. :] I randomly picked Virginia for that little scene. The whole, "That's the magic of Macy's" made my brother crack up and he told me that I'm a smartass. He was telling the truth. My dad just burped my name and it scared the crap out of me. I hope the fight scene wasn't too bad. I wasn't exactly sure how to write it. I love hellhounds. I think Nico's cabin is awesome. Spinney chairs are awesome and Nico's is leather so it is even more awesome. I hope Nico and Thalia's fight was realistic for you guys.**

**Now for other random things, like random things that aren't related to the story.**

**I had my game yesterday morning at 9 and we lost 3-1 and the other team was playing dirty so my coach got mad and he yelled at the ref cause he wasn't making the right calls or anything so he got kicked off the field. It was scary. My coach is never like that- I've had him for about 4 years. He said this is the first time in 7 years that that's happened. D: The ref was so stupid. He yelled at my coach from the middle of the field and he isn't supposed to do that- he's supposed to pull my coach aside and talk to him away from everyone else, but he wouldn't and he was being stupid. At the end of the game, he practically ran out off the field cause he didn't want to deal with angry parents. Fail. But I scored a goal. :D**

**The other night, I was coming home from soccer practice and there was something on the road and we had people on the other side of us so we just ran over it and I was like "I'M GONNA DIE!" And my mom ran like 5 red lights just to turn around to see what it was and I was all "I don't want people to die so I'm gonna get it out of the street" and my mom was like "No!...Okay, be quick." And it was a couch cushion and I was like "Crap, a dead body is gonna fall out." I just threw it on the side of the road. I feel like I saved people's lives. I feel accomplished. ":] xD**

**Ha-ha. So tell me, have you done something lately that has made you feel accomplished? Have you had a sports game lately? If so, how did you guys do? Any thoughts on my random thoughts? Tell me in a review. :D **

**Once again, sorry for the lack of update. I only get one hour on the computer a day now on weekdays and I am buys with school, soccer, and horse-back riding.**


	4. Getting Caught Sucks

**Thalia's POV**

I watched as Nico stalked off to his cabin. Oh, I don't give a shit if I pissed him off. Go ahead, scowl me or whatever. I don't give a damn.

I rubbed my arm- Zeus, it hurt when he flung my arm away from him. Wait! Damn him! He flung my arm away from him like I was some diseased _thing_- which I am not- and he _hurt_ me. He was going to pay. Oh, how he was going to pay.

I looked around the camp grounds. I could see the Big House and the volleyball courts and the- well, you get the idea. I could see the front of the camp.

_Well, what the hell am I supposed to do now?_

I had planned on staying at the mall longer than the time that I had been there. If only that damn hellhound hadn't showed up. If only Nico hadn't showed up. I would be a hell of a lot happier right now.

I walked over to my cabin, not even caring if I got caught. If I did get caught, I was going to make sure that Nico got in trouble with me.

"Hey!"

I turned around to see Clarisse walking towards me.

"Where were you during the sing-along? I didn't see you there," she looked bloodthirsty.

Oh shit.

"You didn't see me? Damn, you really are blind," my voice was venomous.

Clarisse always pissed me off and tonight, I wasn't going to hold back- especially since I had been pissed off before she came over here. I needed _someone_ to take my anger out on- if you counted Clarisse as a _someone_ and not just an animal.

"Don't mess with me, Girl Scout," she threatened.

"Didn't you hear? I got kicked out," I stepped towards her and readied myself for a fight, "Are you deaf, too? Who are you? Helen Keller? Or just one of the dumbest people on Earth?"

"You children of Zeus have always been cocky jackasses. I think it's time to show you where you stand," she cracked her knuckles and all of my muscles tensed.

"You're going to show me that I stand at the top? That's fine with me. I'll show you where you stand," I clenched my right hand into a fist, "the bottom."

She swung her fist and I stepped to the left. Her fist missed my face by a mere two inches. I was getting pissed.

I swung my fist and, unlike her, I hit her right in the jaw.

_Score one for me, zero for Clarisse; just like it should be._

She stumbled backwards, but caught herself after a second. She came running at me and almost knocked me off my feet- luckily, I caught myself before I hit the ground. While I had been trying to steady myself, she grabbed onto my hair and yanked it.

Son of a bitch that hurt!

I elbowed her in the gut and she let out a grunt. I elbowed her in the gut again and, this time, she let go of my hair and braced her stomach. It was only for a split second, but it was enough time of her being so defenseless for me to knock into her with my shoulder with so much force that she hit the ground with a loud thud.

"What is going on here?" the voice sounded furious.

"What do you think? It's a fight-"I didn't finish my threat of having them join involuntarily because I had realized who it was- Chiron.

Once again, oh shit.

"I can see that, Miss Grace, thank you," his voice was icy and unlike his usual warm and cheerful voice.

I instantly felt ashamed. How could I have been so stupid and selfish to start a fight with Clarisse just to blow off steam- we had dummies in the arena for that sort of thing. Now, I had disappointed Chiron; one of the things that I hated the most was when I disappointed people that I cared about.

Although, I'm not so sure my little sob story will help me right now.

"You will both be punished and you shall stay here tomorrow to finish the punishments."

Damn it! I had planned on going home tomorrow to get away from Nico.

"Clarisse, you shall go and start cleaning the stables," he gave her a hard stare until she got up off the ground and ran off in the direction of the stables.

Then, he turned to me, "Where were you?" he meant business.

Well, now's the time to get my revenge on Nico.

"I was, um…I was…I went to the mall," I stuttered.

Damn it, Thalia. Why aren't you telling Chiron that Nico was with you?

"I assume that Mister Di Angelo went with you?"

Well, I guess he took care of that for me.

"Well, yes. He and I shadow traveled there," I admitted.

"Well…I understand that it's Valentine's Day and you and Nico aren't exactly fond of today, but that was _never_ an opening for you two to leave camp without permission," he let out a deep sigh of frustration.

"You shall go to the Mess Hall and begin cleaning. Mister Di Angelo will join you soon. He shall stay tomorrow, as well, and you will both work on the same punishment seeing as you both have decided that you are a team now," he informed me.

We were a team? What?

He turned away from me and began to walk off. I couldn't let him leave without knowing what happened- even if it may only get me into more trouble right now, it would be for the best in the long run.

"Chiron?" he turned to face me, "A hellhound attacked me and another attacked Nico. We killed both of them," my voice was quieter than usual.

"How many people saw?" his face was hard and full of concern.

"We cleared out pretty much the whole mall," my voice was really quiet now.

He clenched his jaw and turned away from me.

Gods, he was so disgusted with me that he couldn't even look at me anymore. I think I'm going to cry. I fucking hate crying. I will not cry. I can't. Not now.

I slowly walked off to the Mess Hall and began to clean dishes over at the sink, while doing my best to keep the tears from falling.

I heard the door open and the sound of footsteps came closer and closer. I made sure that my eyes didn't have any trace of having tears in them.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Nico asked harshly.

"I didn't-"

He cut me off, "I'm sure, Thalia. I'm sure."

"Oh, fuck you. I didn't do shit. Chiron put two and two together- you can't blame me for that."

"To hell I can."

I shook my head, "That doesn't even make sense, you dumbass. And you were the one who agreed to go with me. You could've said no."

"I should have," he glared at me and snatched up a plate from the sink.

"Yeah, I should have never even thought of the idea because it caused me a shitload of trouble," I growled at him.

"You aren't the only one who has to deal with it," he was scrubbing the plate way harder than necessary.

"Just shut up, will you?" I dried the plate that I had been working on and set down beside me, making it the beginning of the stack.

"Of course, your highness," his voice screamed sarcasm.

Gods, did Valentine's Day suck or what?

Clearly, the answer is yes.

Nico sighed beside me.

"What?" I asked, slightly annoyed that he was making any sound at all.

"There are so many damn plates, that's what," he clenched his jaw, "And now, because of you, I can't go home tomorrow. I'll be stuck with you- again."

"You think I'm happy about that? I don't want to be with you," I tried to sound disgusted. I hope it worked.

"Right, I'll think about that while I cut myself tonight," he said sarcastically.

Whoa. Where did that come from? I didn't mention shit about cutting himself or being emo.

I glanced at him forearms, which was pretty stupid seeing as he was wearing a hoodie now, but hey, can you really blame me?

Another reason why that was a stupid move: I had seen his arms today and they were clean. Plus, he could cut himself in other places if he wanted to.

Apparently, he has seen my looking at his arms, "What?" he snapped at me.

"What do you think?" I snapped back at him, "Come on, use your brain for once, but don't hurt yourself in the process."

"HA! That was so damn funny. Oh shit, I'm dying of laughter. You are so fucking hilarious," he shot me another glare.

"I've already kicked Clarisse's ass, don't make me kick yours too," I threatened him.

He stopped moving all together, "You got into a fight with Clarisse?" he asked with a flat tone.

"Yes," my voice was guarded.

_What was he thinking?_

"Oh my gods."

He burst out laughing and had to set down the plate that he had been holding, just to keep it from slipping out of his hand and crashing onto the ground. He was holding his side and laughing when I just couldn't take it anymore.

I set my plate down harder than I should've and tackled him to the ground. Except he didn't land with his stomach on the ground- he was on his back. That meant that I was lying on top of him while pinning his hands to the ground.

Gods, this was not right.

_Or maybe it was._

No! It isn't right!

Nico stopped laughing, "Can I help you?" he raised his eyebrows at me.

"Shut. The fuck. Up," I told him.

"Would like some fries to go with that?" he smirked at me.

Hades, this kid was stupid.

"Not if you're making them. They'd probably be poisonous."

"Don't give me any ideas if you want to live," his voice was low and dangerous and…and…intriguing.

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes.

I tried to stand up, but ended up putting my foot on Nico's leg by accident and falling forward.

My lips landed on Nico's.

**A/N: Oh shit! How'd you like that last line? ;] Ha-ha. Also, wasn't Thalia's fight with Clarisse pretty badass? Yeah, I think so too. xD **

**Chiron is disappoint! D: Oh no! Damn, I hate when I disappoint people that I care about. T_T**

**Once again, I'm sorry for the lack of update. :[**

**I'm sick! D: I stayed home from school on Friday and I missed my soccer game this morning. I feel like crud. -_- Ugh. Whatever.**

**I think I'm going to go get some chocolate cake. Who else loves chocolate cake? :D Tell me in a review! **

**Also, I just came up with a great idea. At the end of every chapter, I shall have a question of the day (question of the chapter?) at the end of each author's note.**

**So, the question for this chapter is: Recently, have you heard something that, for whatever reason, didn't make sense to you, but everyone else understood it?**

**That happened to me on Thursday at soccer practice. My coach explained a drill to the team and I was the only one who didn't understand it. I felt pretty stupid, especially when he asked me if I didn't understand because of the way he was explaining it or if it was something else (I'm assuming that the "something else" is my stupidity). Don't get me wrong, my coach is a great coach and he's the best coach I've ever had, it's just that I felt so damn stupid and I can't get over it for whatever reason. I know I'm not stupid (4.0 baby :D ), but I feel like I am more and more lately. I don't know why. *sigh*….Jeez, this sounds like a therapy session. We'll all get in touch with our inner feelings :O**

**Just kidding. xD**

**Therapist= the rapist! OMG! D: Lock the doors! xD I fear rape like nobody's business. O_O**

**Alright, answer the question in the review and remember: random thoughts are always welcome here. :]**


	5. I Taste Like What?

**IMPORTANT EDIT IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM!**

**Nico's POV**

"Whatever," Thalia said to me while rolling her eyes.

I felt her foot accidentally step on my leg and she fell forward….onto my lips.

Holy. Hades.

Her lips were soft and smooth and she vaguely tasted like rain drops. I will never think of rain the same way again.

She pulled away quickly and stood up. She wouldn't look me in the eyes. Damn it.

We got back to washing dishes in a slightly awkward silence. I don't know how long we washed dishes, but it seemed like time dragged on forever. I didn't know how much longer I could survive this.

"It's time for you two to go to bed," Chiron said from behind us.

Saved!

I put down the rag that I had been holding and walked out of the Mess Hall with Thalia still by my side. When we were about halfway to our cabins, I broke the silence.

"So…" I trailed off, unsure of what to say without having her shock me. Again.

"What?" her voice was flat.

"That's seriously all you're going to say?" I started to laugh.

I have no idea what was going on with me, but I suddenly found it funny that Thalia and I had just kissed and all she has to say is, "what."

She crossed her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes at me. Jeez, talk about attitude.

"No, seriously, Thalia. Tell me, honestly, what's going through your mind," I bit my tongue in an effort to stop laughing.

She sighed, "I think you need to shut up before I slap you. Or shock you, either one."

I snorted and bit my tongue again before I could laugh, "Other than that."

"It's kind of cold out here," her voice was, once again, flat.

"Come on, Thals," I didn't really know why, but it was seriously important to me that I know what she was thinking.

"I'm back to thinking that I'm going to slap you. And it's going to be hard," she raised one eyebrow at me.

"So the thought of my lips has left your mind? Not likely," I smirked.

She unfolded her arms and slapped me in the chest with one swift movement. She wasn't kidding when she said that it was going to be hard.

I coughed, "Holy Hades, Thalia."

"I warned you," she said in a sing-song voice.

She started to walk off towards her cabin again. I wasn't letting her go that easily. I was getting my answer, damn it.

"Hey, I'm not leaving you alone until I get my answer," I told her while trying to catch up with her.

She stopped walking, "What if you don't like what you hear?" she questioned.

"Then I'll leave you alone."

_And be pissed_. But I decided it would be best if I just left that part out.

"And if you do like what you hear?" she questioned me again, still not looking at me- instead, straight forward.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll leave you alone, maybe I won't," I was kidding about that last part…sort of.

She abruptly turned towards me, with her arms still crossed, and her eyes bore into mine.

"You know what I think?" she smirked.

_I don't know if I'm going to like this or not. _

"Obviously not or I wouldn't be asking," I explained to her slowly as if she were a child.

What? I can't help it. I'm just naturally a smartass. Blame my dad; I probably got it from him.

She chuckled, "I think it's surprising that you don't taste like death."

I laughed, "What the hell do I taste like then?"

Seriously, I had no clue. None of my past girlfriends had ever told me.

She thought about it for a second, "lemon," she decided.

"What the hell? Lemon?" I was so confused.

_When the hell was the last time that I had lemon?_

"It's faint, not very strong at all," she said matter-of-factly.

"Um…okay then," I nodded still trying to figure out why the fuck I tasted like lemon.

"I told you that you might not like what you hear," Thalia shook her head.

"It's not that I don't like what I hear," Thalia raised her eyebrows in a questioning way, "I just can't remember the last time I had something with lemon in it…does it taste bad to you?"

She slapped my arm, but- thankfully- not as hard as before.

"What?"

My question wasn't that bad.

"I'm not telling you what tastes I do and don't like unless I'm eating food," she looked away from me.

Was that nervousness that I heard in her voice? Am I making Thalia Grace- the girl who doesn't give a shit about men- nervous? Oh, this is too good to be true.

"Why not?" I smirked.

"Shut up," she said curtly.

"Why won't you tell me if I taste good or not?" I started to giggle at how wrong that sounded.

"You are so fucking immature!" she looked at me again and shook her head in wonder.

"Why are you so nervous?" I tried to hold back my laughter.

"Why are you so giddy?" she shot back at me; there were hints of annoyance in her voice.

"I have no idea," I answered honestly, "Now I've answered your question so answer mine," I attempted to make a compromise.

"Who said that I was even nervous?" she didn't let me respond, "You can't feel what I feel so you don't even know if I'm nervous or not- which I'm not," she said quickly when I opened my mouth to protest, "So shut it."

I sighed, "Oh Thals, when are you ever going to-"I stopped before I got too far.

"What?" her voice was extremely demanding.

"Oh, never mind," I tried to shrug it off like it was no big deal.

It didn't work.

"Damn it, Nico. What? What is it? Don't make me shock the answer out of you," she pointed her finger at me.

"When do I get my second kiss?" I attempted to look like that actually was what I was planning the whole time.

Zeus, why did I even pick that to say? I'm so damn stupid! I mentally cursed myself.

Thalia opened her mouth and closed it and then opened it again. Clearly, she was shocked.

"Imitating a fish, I see."

Damn, can I say anything intelligent today? Can I say anything intelligent _ever_?

Thalia pushed me in the chest and shoved me up against a tree that had been behind me. She shocked me- hard- and my whole body went numb.

"You are such a mother-fucking jackass," she had the collar of my shirt balled up in her fist.

Without warning, I had an epiphany.

"Zeus, we're like a fucking cycle," I was suddenly disgusted by my epiphany.

"What?" she looked puzzled.

"We joke around, one of us says something, the other goes nuts, and we cuss like crazy at each other, don't speak to each other for a while, and then eventually make up. But never verbally, I don't think we've ever said the words 'I'm sorry' to one another in our entire lives," I shook my head.

"I haven't known you my entire life," Thalia said unsurely.

"Stop avoiding the fucking subject. Why do you fight with me all the time? Why don't you just let the little things go?" I ask her.

I'm so fucking sick of this. Why do I even put up with this shit?

"Because…because…" Thalia shook her head,"does it even matter?"

I grabbed her hand and forced her to let go of the collar of my shirt. I kept her hand in mine and stared her down.

"I'm sick of it, Thalia. I'm so fucking sick of it," my voice was low.

She had a sort of sad look on her face, but then her face went blank. Then she closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them, she looked pissed.

"Then why don't you leave? Why do you put up with me if you're 'so fucking sick of this'?" she yanked her hand out of mine, "Why did you?" her voice was icy and harsh.

"Because I had started to fall in love with you."

Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened in shock.

I turned around and started to walk to my cabin, but stopped before I got too far away. I turned around and decided that I had one last thing to tell her.

"But you don't have to worry because I'm getting over you pretty damn quickly. I've found that it's pretty easy to get over bitches."

I gave her a cold smile and left her standing outside with her mouth still open and her eyes still wide. Her face hadn't changed when I told her I was getting over her- no, that's a little bit of a lie. There had been a change. There was now a look of hurt in her eyes.

But I couldn't care about that if this was how it was going to be, so I just kept on walking.

I didn't ever look back again. Not even when I heard a faint sob.

**WARNING: EXTREMLY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE!**

**So in case you haven't noticed, I changed this to rated M because the language is more than minor…way more. xD**

***EDIT!: I was looking through some of the Thalico M stories and…I'm going to be 100% honest with you guys; I don't want my story associated with that because that's not what it is. I changed the rating because of the language not because of…lemons. I am not a lemon person in that way. Although, I do like lemon sorbet…but that's not fan fiction so whatever. **xXUndiscoveredNovelistXx **gave me the idea that my story is rated hardcore T. xD That works with me. So my rating shall, once again, be T. Thank you!**

**Oh my Lord, Nico. You are acting like a bitch. Well, that will change. Don't worry. And, holy Jesus! Did Thalia start crying? Why yes, yes she did. *Gasp!* She has tear ducts! But seriously guys, even the strongest have to cry, so we're just going to have to put up with that for now, cool? **

**Yesterday, I got to see one of my best guy friends, Luis. He was in Mexico the whole summer and I didn't get to see him or talk to him and he just moved back here and he showed up at my door yesterday to surprise me. :] It was amazing! Ha-ha.**

**Today, I got to go home early because I went to school thinking that it was going to be hot, so I was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it started POURING rain. D: But I love thunderstorms. xD I asked my teacher if I could call my mom to come drop off a jacket for me (I'm just getting over my cold, I don't want to walk around soaking wet) and she refused by telling me, "You won't melt." I despise that teacher. She is so annoying and she jumps in your conversations and is just...horrible! Ugh! But I sent my mom a text during lunch to tell her to come and pick me up and she did. xD Now I have hot chocolate that she made me. :]**

**Oh my gosh, the kid that sits next to me in math, was high during class. He was acting all weird and I noticed that his pupils were SO tiny and I just asked him (because I'm straight forward like that), "Are you high?" And he was all, "Yeah." Oh it was awkward.**

**Yep, so it's all rainy and stuff, so I don't have riding lessons today and I'm assuming that I don't have practice tonight. That's good because I have to study for my history test and it's going to be a really tough exam. :P **

**Some good news: **daughter of apollo422 **told me that one of my Thalico stories inspired her to write one that I actually read. I am seriously so touched by this. I know I should like Miss America right now or something, but I truly and honestly want to influence people's lives positively so hearing this made me smile. :] I love her story and I think you guys should check it out, so it's called "Airliner" and here's the link: ****.net/s/6357399/1/Airliner**

**I get popcorn now. :D**

**I BOUGHT A SMENCIL TODAY! It smells like grape. :] I love those things.** **I'm always like, "I need to stop smelling these, I'm going to end up getting hig- OMG! WHAT DOES THIS ONE SMELL LIKE?" Ahahaha! So our question of the day is, what's your favorite scent for smencils? Never smelled smencils? Don't like the smell of them? Then what's one of your favorite scents in general (you may answer both questions if you like)?**

**Also, I've just thought of another question: Right now, what do you think of Nico? Do you agree with Nico that he shouldn't put up with Thalia anymore if their relationship is going to be a cycle, or are you against him on this one? Tell me in a review. :D **


	6. Crying is Horrible

**Thalia's POV**

"But you don't have to worry because I'm getting over you pretty damn quickly. I've found that it's pretty easy to get over bitches."

Nico gave me a cold smile and walked away, back towards his cabin.

I felt like he had just slapped me across the face. I couldn't help it- a faint sob escaped my lips.

Nico's back slightly stiffened- he had heard it.

Shit! Why couldn't I hold myself together? I cannot give him the satisfaction of his words hurting me!

I started to back away and when I was certain that I was going to break down, I ran back to my cabin. I flung the door open and tears were streaming down my face.

Gods, I hate crying!

I slammed the door shut behind me and lay down on my stomach on my bed. I furiously wiped away my tears. I started taking deep breaths to calm myself down. Eventually, I finally stopped crying.

The only thing that I could hear was the sound of my breathing. Damn, why is it so quiet in here? Creepy.

I turned my head and looked at the clock. 10:30. Well, I didn't cry for more than ten minutes. Suck on that, Nico. You goddamn, son of a bitch, devil-like, son of Hades!

_Okay, calm down, Thalia._

I took a deep breath through my nose and let it out through my mouth. Better.

I sat up and rummaged through my bedside table, once again, for the picture- once again.

I bit my lip and studied the picture.

I was only about eight in this picture. My black hair was in a ponytail and I was wearing blue jeans with a plain black t-shirt with black Vans; I was smiling without showing my teeth. My style wasn't _that_ embarrassing when I was younger. Thank gods.

My mom stood beside me with a cheetah- print purse slung over her shoulder- also smiling, but with her teeth showing- and she wore dark blue jeans, a plain, purple t-shirt, and plain, black flip-flops. Her black hair was down to her shoulders and it was wavy; her eyes were a soft, hazel color. As much as I hate to admit it, my mother had been beautiful.

We were standing in the middle of a street with tons of people behind us, as well as food stands and tables. We had been at the fair.

"_Mom, I'm hungry," I complained._

"_Hush, Thalia," she waved her hand at me and continued to talk on the phone._

_She took a gulp of her drink and I wrinkled my nose in disgust as the smell of alcohol wafted over in my direction._

_My mom glanced at me and put her hand over the speaker on her phone, "Don't look so disgusted, it doesn't suite your face," she informed me._

_I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted._

"_Humph," I didn't look at her._

_My mom sighed, "I'm going to have to call you back; Thalia's pouting."_

"_Mom!" I complained louder than before._

_I hated it when she just announced my feelings to the whole dang world._

"_I'll talk to you later, Jeff," she paused as she listened to his response, "Alright, I'll see you soon. Bye-bye."_

_She hung up the phone and put it back in her cheetah-print purse. I hated that purse. It was so ugly._

"_What do you want, baby?" she asked, slightly annoyed._

"_Don't call me 'baby', Mom," I rolled my eyes._

"_Don't roll your eyes at me. What do you want?" she asked again._

"_I want some food. I already told you that; I'm hungry," I whined._

"_Alright, alright," she dug through her purse and pulled out her wallet, "Here, go buy yourself a hot dog or something," her hand was outstretched to me and she held a twenty dollar bill in it._

"_Mom, I can't go buy it myself," I said quietly._

"_Why not?" she was getting annoyed with me._

"_People are always watching me; people are out to get me," my voice was barely louder than a whisper._

_My mom rolled her eyes and sighed, "For God's sake, Thalia."_

_She stood up and grabbed her purse with the bill still in her hand, "Let's go buy you a damn hot dog."_

_I was kind of embarrassed that my mom always cussed; none of my other friend's moms did that._

"_Excuse me, ma'am," we turned around to see some worker holding a camera and smiling at us, "Would you like a picture?"_

_My mom looked him up and down. Apparently, she liked what she saw._

"_Why, of course we would," she looked down at me and smiled at me like I was the most precious thing in the world, "Wouldn't we love that, Thalia?"_

_I knew to play along or I would pay for it later._

"_Yes," I nodded my head enthusiastically, "Yes, we would."_

_I smiled back at her and she winked at me to let me know that I was playing my part well. My mom stood slightly behind me and put her hand on my shoulder._

"_Smile," the man smiled at us again and took the picture._

"_Well, thank you so much," my mom was acting like he had just saved her life instead of taking her picture._

_Good gods._

_She handed me the twenty dollar bill, which had still been in her hand, and told me to go buy my hot dog. I had no choice, so I took the risk of seeing something creepy, and bought my hot dog._

_My mom had chatted up the worker while I had been in line and had convinced him to come home with her after his shift was done. What a sleaze. _

_That night, while I had been locked away in my room while my mom was "showing the man our house", I thought about my pathetic day at the fair._

_It was one of the only times that I had gotten along with my mother. And it was all because of some random guy._

I shoved the picture back into the drawer and slammed it shut. My mom had to have been the worst mother ever.

**Nico's POV**__

I shut my cabin door behind me and leaned against it for a minute.

_What had I done? _

This was bad. This was beyond bad. This was…this was Kronos bad! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but still! It's bad. And don't you doubt that!

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

Every chance that I had to be with Thalia was gone. All because I couldn't keep my damn temper under control.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit! Fan-fucking-tastic!

I hate myself right now. I honestly do.

What the hell am I going to do? Hades, can you even imagine how awkward it's going to be tomorrow? Oh, I don't even want to think about it.

I walked over to my bed and lay down on my stomach.

I had made her cry. I had made Thalia Grace, the girl who never cries, cry. So much for her reputation of not having tear ducts. Well, no one knew about this- thank gods- so I guess her reputation still existed.

But I still knew the truth. I still knew what I had done.

I slid under the covers, not bothering to change into pajamas, and stared up at the ceiling in the dark of the night.

I listened to the silence and tried to figure out what to do tomorrow. It took me a hell of a long time to figure it out, but in the end I decided to just go with my gut feeling.

I'll just apologize and then not speak to her until she speaks to me.

….Hades, it took me that long to figure _that_ out? I am one stupid-ass person.

Oh well, it doesn't really matter. Okay, yeah it does, but whatever. I don't care.

A deafening scream woke me up.

The first thing I noticed was that it was morning now.

The second thing that I noticed was how familiar the scream was to me.

It was Thalia's scream.

**A/N: Intense last line. Once again. xD**

**Now let us begin with the randomness of my author notes.**

**Thalia's picture…wow…that one just came to me. I don't know. It just seemed like something that could have happened. What do you guys think of that?**

**Also, Thalia's outburst with Nico….Hahaha. She went crazy with the cursing. **

**At least Nico feels bad about talking to Thalia like that. And thank God he's going to apologize. xD It'll be all good. Don't worry. :]**

**So wondering how Thalia's scream is familiar to Nico, even though she's not a screamer. So am I. xD Just kidding. I'll explain that in the next chapter. :]**

**Now on to my personal randomness.**

**On Friday, I hung out with Luis, and I swear to God, I was social this whole weekend. :O So anyways, on Saturday my soccer game was…no. But then I went to the mall with my friend Kylie so that cheered me up. :] And then Luis slept over and it was hilarious. And on Sunday I saw 'The Social Network' with Kylie and Samara. :D It was really good! You guys should see it if you haven't already. But then I had to clean. :P Gross.**

**Now, I have an announcement to make. After about nine years playing soccer, I'm ending my "career" after this season. I'm not enjoying it as much now and I'd like to explore horseback riding and when I get to high school I want to see writing clubs and other things. I just think that I have labeled myself as a soccer player for so long, that I was afraid to let it go. But I realize that it's time to move on, and while it may be terribly sad to leave behind something that I love, I think it will be the right choice for me. I'll finish up this season, I may play for my school this last year, but I don't think I'll be playing in high school. Although, you never know. :/**

**So, questions of the day (I'm doing more than one now :] ): Did you notice that because I put a space after the smiley face, the colon and parentheses now look like an upside-down sad face. It's true. Look at it.**

**Also, are you/ have you ever been in a situation like mine, where you've made the choice to leave something behind because you feel that it's time to move on? How'd you feel about your decision? Any regrets?**

**And finally, would the next chapter be too soon for Nico and Thalia to kiss again? There will be a poll on my profile so please go and participate. Thank you for your help and support and everything else. :]**


	7. It's Time For What?

**Nico's POV**

I jumped up out of bed and flung my cabin door open. I was tearing through the camp and trying to figure out where exactly Thalia was, when I realized that no one else was running out with me.

_What the Hades? What am I missing here?_

When I reached the hill, I found my answer. Everyone was already fighting off so many monsters. It was a huge swarm of demigods and monsters. I'm guessing that the fight has been going on for a good couple of minutes.

Why anyone hadn't waked me up, I had no clue. What was going on? Where did all these monsters come from? And more importantly, where's Thalia and how's she doing?

I scanned the crowd and saw the Apollo cabin all lined up and firing arrows at the monsters. Their aim was fantastic and some of the monsters turned into a cloud of gold dust.

Suddenly, I saw a flash of back hair and the body of a girl's all dressed in black- Thalia.

I sprinted over to her, pushing through the crowd and earning complaints from my fellow campers.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy swing Riptide at a monster and rip right through its chest. He must've seen me out of the corner of his eye because he suddenly turned and yelled something at me. I didn't catch what he said, but about a second later I could guess that it had been something along the lines of "watch out."

A hellhound pounced on me and I slammed into the ground, having the wind knocked out of me. I grunted and pulled my sword out from a shadow. Its intense red eyes bore into mine and it swiped its paw at me. His claws ripped through my shirt and a sharp pain went through my chest.

Damn it, my shirt! And I'm bleeding!

I gritted my teeth, told it to go back to hell, and thrust my sword through its neck. It instantly turned into a cloud of dust and I was, once again, free to run to Thalia.

I jumped to my feet and located her on the far left side of the hill. She was trying to fight off a manticore and was actually doing pretty well. But she would've done better if she hadn't been bleeding profusely from her abdominal area. I'm guessing that's what caused her scream.

She tried to thrust her spear into its chest, but the manticore just swatted it away as if it were a fly. I could see that she was getting tired, but she kept fighting through the pain.

Her words of telling me to keep my ass out of the way flashed through my mind, but I quickly pushed them away, deciding that this time was an exception.

I snuck up behind the manticore and sliced open its back with my sword. It cried out in pain, but didn't die. It swiftly turned around and it made an attempt to swat me with its tail. I jumped out of the way just in time and was about to plunge my sword into its side, when Thalia took over.

In the blink of an eye, she threw her spear at its face and it gouged in between the manticore's eyes. Blood splattered across my chest and then it exploded into a cloud of dust, just as all of the other monsters were doing.

Thalia collapsed on the ground and I instantly ran to her side, grabbed her by the waist, and had her lean up against me.

"Shit," I whispered as I examined her wound.

"Actually, it's blood," she chuckled and then squeezed her eyes closed, feeling the pain.

"No shit, Pinecone Face," I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but that was pretty stupid of me because her eyes were still closed. Oh, well. Maybe she could hear the smile in my voice. People say that they can hear that a lot.

"Why are you over here?" she asked quietly.

Damn, last night was not going to be easily forgotten.

I answered her honestly, "I heard you scream."

She nodded her head slightly and attempted to wiggle out of my arms.

"I'm sorry, Thals," I whispered to her.

She didn't answer me. She just put her hand on my chest and was about to push me away from her- or vice versa, which would be to push herself away from me.

I reacted on instinct.

I put my right hand on her face, pulled her closer, and kissed her. I waited for her to shock me, but it never happened. I honestly thought for a second, that we were just going to make out right then and there, but she pulled her lips away from mine, stepped back from me, and shook her head. She never met my eyes once.

"I'm sorry," I repeated myself, but for a different reason this time.

"We need to get to the infirmary," she turned on her heel and began to limp in the direction of the infirmary.

I wasn't just going to let her go walk around and lose more blood- I had already been pushing it when I took the time to kiss her.

I grabbed her arm, conjured up as much energy as I could, and shadow traveled us over there. Surprisingly, there weren't too many people there- thank the gods. Some of the kids from the Apollo cabin rushed over to us and immediately made us lay down while they began to patch us up. I tried not to wince too much as they cleaned the wounds in my chest and gave me ambrosia.

After a couple of minutes, one of the Apollo kids smiled at me as the other kids stopped working on me, and told me that I was going to be fine. Like I even ever doubted it.

I sat up and spotted Thalia on the other side of the room, lying on her side, facing the wall. I decided to walk over to her and see how she was.

"Hey," I greeted her while sitting down on the edge of the bed.

She flipped over onto her other side to face me, "Hey," she said quietly.

"How are you feeling?"

"Sore," she said grimly.

I laughed, "Yeah, I would think so."

She pressed her lips together and nodded her head.

"What happened?"

"That damn manticore was kicking my ass for a while," she lifted her left arm and rubbed her temple.

"Well, yeah, but what did it do to cut you up so badly?"

"It hit me with its tail and paralyzed me for a minute. I probably would've died if Annabeth hadn't been there to help me."

I am so lost right now. Where the hell was Annabeth?

Thalia saw the confused look on my face and her lips turned up into a small smile.

"Zombie Brain, in case you didn't notice there were a lot of monsters out there and when one started to attack her, she had to leave my side. And I had already been beginning to be able to move again when she had to move."

"Why were they all out there?" I still didn't understand that part.

Thalia shook her head and sighed, "I don't know, Nico. I don't know."

"Gods…" I didn't know what else to say.

We sat there in silence for a couple of minutes. It wasn't awkward, it just felt…okay.

Thalia rolled over on her back and I heard a sharp intake of air.

"What do you need?"

She wasn't dying, but I was still worried about her.

"You to stop worrying, monsters to leave me alone," she shook her head and stared at the ceiling.

There was one last "need" that she didn't say; I could feel it in the air.

"Just say it," I bit the inside of my cheek.

"Say what?" she asked innocently.

"Seriously, Thals," my voice was stern.

"So am I," she raised one eyebrow at me.

She is so damn stubborn!

"What's your other need?" I demanded.

"I have a lot of needs, but I don't want to sound too ungrateful for what I already have," there was an unholy amount of fake sweetness in her voice.

"Say it."

"I wasn't aware that I had another need to share with you."

"I was."

"Well too bad," she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Thalia Grace," I scolded.

"Nico Di Angelo," she mocked me.

"Just tell me," I pleaded quietly.

She bit her lip and closed her eyes. She just lay there, not moving, for a minute or two.

"Why are you so difficult?" she sounded annoyed with me.

"I'm the difficult one?" I let out a laugh.

"Yes," she retorted.

"I find that unlikely. At least when I'm being compared to you," I smirked.

"What's your problem?" she retaliated.

_I'm in love. And it's driving me fucking crazy, thank you very much._

"You're my problem," I answered curtly and honestly.

Wrong thing to say.

Her eyes snapped opened and she clenched her jaw while sending me one of her signature glares.

"Really?" her voice was harsh.

I tried to backtrack, "That didn't come out right."

"No, I'm pretty sure it did. Like you said, we're a cycle, right? Well, maybe it's time we break the damn cycle," she flipped over onto her other side, so her back was facing me.

The wind was, once again, knocked out of me.

_Life_ is a whole damn cycle.

"Thals, I'm sorry okay? Can we just please move past this?" I pleaded with her.

She didn't answer me. She didn't move a muscle.

"Damn it, Thalia. You think you're the only one whose feeling confused?"

She flipped back over and there was a look of disbelief on her face.

She raised her voice at me, "Who said I was feeling confused?"

She propped herself up on her elbow and leaned towards me.

"You are so-"

I cut her off by pulling her face closer to mine and giving her a look that clearly showed I wasn't putting up with any of her bullshit.

"-unlike yourself lately," she finished lamely.

"Oh, I know," I said darkly.

I could see a look in her eyes that clearly showed that she'd just thought of an idea.

She rested her forehead against mine and closed her eyes. I froze.

"You know what, Nico?" her voice was low and seductive.

She smiled, "go suck a cock."

She pushed herself away from me and turned back over to face the wall.

Making up with her was going to be harder than I thought.

Just then, Chiron walked over to me. He looked upset.

"Nico, let's go," he turned to walk away.

I stood up, "Where are we going?"

He sighed, "It's time for you to go on a quest."

**A/N: WARNING!: EXTREMLY LONG AND RAMBLY AUTHOR'S NOTE! (MAYBE I SHOULD JUST STOP PUTTING WARNINGS BECAUSE I THINK ALL OF MY A/N'S WILL BE LIKE THIS O_O )**

**QUEST TIME! Yeah! Hades yeah! Who's excited for this? (Forgive me for any cliché-ness that will be coming up with the quest, but it shouldn't be that bad!)**

**Aww. Nico got rejected. :[ Who would reject Nico? That is one sexy beast that you should never reject. xD**

**WHO ELSE IS DISSAPOINT IN RICK RIGHT NOW BEAUSE NICO WON'T BE IN **_**THE LOST HERO**_**? I AM SO PISSED! :[**

**How was the kiss? Bad? Good? Somewhere in between?**

**:D I feel so happy! Want to know why? (I know you do!) I GOT OVER 100 REVIEWS FOR THIS STORY NOW! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO FRIGGIN MUCH! :D XOXOXOXOXO**

**On Tuesday, I made 2 goals in a row at soccer practice and then 2 more later on and I made the most out of my whole team. And then on Wednesday, I got 100% on my history test (which only 5 other people did, by the way) and I got an A on my math and science test. And I got an email from my English teacher saying that I think outside of the box, work well with others, am generous, a pleasure to have in class, etc. Add on the fact that I had improved my mile time and I played well in my soccer game (which we tied) and this week has been so good, so far. :] Despite the fact that Thursday night sucked. :P **

**I did trotting in horseback riding lessons and I was all sore (my horse was lazy and didn't want to trot) and then I had to go shovel poop and this one horse (despise him) tried to bite me in the face when I walked in. I did what I thought I should do (yell at him to knock it off and smack his back) and then left. Apparently I am supposed to smack it in the mouth because the noise scares them. Who would have ever thought that smacking them in the mouth would be the right thing to do? I would've thought that it would just piss them off even more.**

**And then I went to soccer and it was a disaster. I passed the ball incorrectly twice, kicked it incorrectly once, did the rest of the drill right and then my coach told me that I was the "poor part of the drill" and sent me to practice taking shots on goal with the inexperienced players. Then he told me not to be upset with him because he wanted me to practice my shooting. -_- And when I got upset, I started thinking about all of the stuff that's going wrong right now and finally got to cry when I got home. And then, of course, I had to stay up to eleven at night to do homework. Fantastic day, huh? *sigh* "What goes up, must come down." Stupid laws of gravity. :P**

**Just a quick shout out, you guys should read the story on here called "Life As We Know It" by owlgrl1289. It's a fantastic story. :]**

**You know what else is a fantastic story (PERCY JACKSON!) Perks of Being a Wallflower. It's a great book. It's witty and it gives you new perspectives on life and it's easy to relate to Charlie. I can't remember the author's name, but you guys should definitely check it out. It's from the 90s. :D**

**Today is 10/10/10. This only happens every 1000 years! :D**

**QUESTIONS OF THE DAY: Least favorite god/goddess and why? (My answer: ****Artemis has always bothered me. She seems so immature and arrogant. Hephaestus doesn't really have any personality. He's so bland in my opinion.)**

**Favorite god? Favorite goddess? (My answer: Hades! People don't give him enough credit. Athena because I admire her intelligence or Aphrodite because love always conquers in the end. :] )**

**How's your week been so far? :]**

**Tell me all of your (honest) feedback in a review! :D**


	8. We'll Take It

**Nico's POV**

We walked to the Big House in an eerie silence. When we got to the door, Chiron stepped aside and waited for me to walk in, before following behind me.

"So…um…I'll just go see Rachel?" I was unsure of what he wanted me to do right now.

He just nodded his head and after a few awkward and quiet moments, I entered the attic. It was dusty and had an overpowering musty smell to it.

"_Gorgeous_," I thought sarcastically.

Rachel looked up from the Seventeen magazine that she had been reading and smiled at me.

"Hey there, Nico," she greeted, grinning like an idiot.

She had always been so annoying.

"Hey," I greeted her half-heartedly, "I'm here for my prophecy," I said with fake cheeriness.

"Right," Rachel nodded her head,"I can't just make it happen. It happens when it happens," she told me.

"Well, I know that," I rolled me eyes.

She opened her mouth to make some smart comment, but before she could say anything, her eyes turned green and she went into a sort of trance.

"_**The son of darkness**_

_**And the daughter of the sky,**_

_**Shall go to the west on a quest **_

_**To find what is rightfully ours.**_

_**A relationship shall be made,**_

_**Another shall be broken.**_

_**And the one we least expect**_

_**Shall betray us all."**_

Oh shit. That last line…fucking hell.

I played the prophecy over in my head and instantly hated it.

"Daughter of the sky"…why of course I would have to go on a quest with Thalia while everything is wrong between us. Just my damn, nonexistent luck.

"Thanks, Rachel," I sighed.

"No problem," she looked back down at her magazine and began to flip through the pages once more.

I walked back down to main part of the Big House and found all of the cabin leaders sitting around the huge, white table. Even Thalia was there. She looked a little pale, but other than that, she looked a hell of a lot better.

As soon as I stepped into view, everyone turned and stared intently at me. I suddenly didn't know what to say.

I looked at Thalia and said, "It's quest time."

She closed her eyes and said, "Oh Hades."

Clarisse started to snicker, and Percy and Annabeth quickly shared a look from across the table. I couldn't tell exactly what they were thinking, but I'm pretty sure they were worried about this.

"Shut up, Clarisse," I muttered as I sat down in my spot.

Chiron clapped his hands together, "Well, you'll need to leave today. I doubt this is anything minor," he stated darkly. He studied my face, "We need the rest of the prophecy."

"I think we all got the idea that Thalia and I are the two in the prophecy," a couple kids snickered some more. I ignored them and carried on with the rest of it,"We're going to find what is 'rightfully ours'," I quoted, "A relationship shall be made," someone made a false surprised gasp, "And another shall be broken. The one we least expect shall betray us all," I finished.

Everyone went dead silent at the last line.

"My gods," Annabeth whispered from beside Thalia.

Percy's brow was furrowed in confusion and concern, while everyone else either looked scared, shocked, or uncertain. Nobody said anything for a couple of minutes.

"You must go pack now and leave immediately," Chiron said quietly.

Thalia and I pushed our chairs back and ran off to our cabins. It only took my about five minutes to stuff my bag full of some shirts, pants, undergarments, my iPod, some drachmas, bathroom essentials, cash, my phone, and another skull ring. I had my reasons for the last item.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and quickly walked towards Thalia's pine. Percy and Annabeth were standing there talking quietly. They stopped as soon as they saw me.

As soon as I was close enough, Annabeth pulled me into an embrace, "Be careful," she said worriedly.

"I will be," I assured her.

She stepped back and Percy pulled me into a "man hug", "Don't do anything too stupid," he joked around.

I laughed, "Have you forgotten who the Seaweed Brain is?"

"Hey, they don't call you Zombie Brain for nothing," he smiled at me.

Annabeth shook her head and smiled at us, "That's my boys," she laughed.

Her eyes suddenly lit up and she leaped forward to pull Thalia into a tight hug.

Thalia laughed, "I'll be okay, Wise girl. I promise. Its Dead boy over here that you should be worrying about," her voice sounded light when she teased me, but I knew that it wasn't like the other times. She's still pissed at me, but she wasn't going to discuss our fight with Percy and Annabeth- at least not right now.

After about another two minutes of goodbyes and assuring that we would be okay and promises of being together again soon, Thalia and I finally left. We walked down the hill to a spot behind a patch of trees where my car was. It was a black 2010 Cadillac CTS-V.

Thalia let out a harsh laugh, "You are so damn spoiled."

"I know," I admitted. It was true.

The car beeped as I unlocked the doors and popped the trunk open. Thalia threw her bag at me and I just barely caught it. I stuffed both of our bags into the trunk and got into the driver's seat. Thalia was sitting there, looking out the window. Her expression was blank.

"Well…" I trailed off.

She didn't move at all.

"Look, we need to work together and I don't know how well that's going to work if we can't get over this fight."

I waited for her response. After a minute she slowly turned towards me and said very flatly, "Fine. Drive."

We drove without saying anything for about an hour, just listening to the radio. After a while, I just couldn't stand it any longer.

"Let's play 20 questions," I suggested.

Thalia laughed, "Um…okay."

"What's your favorite TV show?" I asked.

"Tosh.O," she answered, "Yours?"

"CSI. Your least favorite band?"

"The Naked Brothers Band," she cringed and I laughed at her reaction. "Family Guy or the Simpsons?"

I thought about it for a second, "As hilarious as Family Guy is the Simpsons is a classic," I smiled at how natural we were acting now. We were on our good part of the cycle.

"True," Thalia nodded.

"What's your earliest memory?" I had decided to start asking deeper questions than the ones that people usually asked.

She hesitated, "When I was about three, I was watching some kid show and my mom was on the phone and something slammed into our front door. My mom screamed and dropped the phone and we hid in her room until the police showed up. No one ever knew what it was," she had a distant look in her eyes.

I took my right hand off the steering wheel, reached over, and squeezed her knee before quickly putting my hand back on the steering wheel.

She recovered quickly, "Do you remember anything from your childhood?"

"I remember being sick when I was about five and my mom stayed in my room with me overnight to make sure that I was okay. When I woke up she was lying on the floor sleeping and I was just watching her. Like a creeper," I added jokingly.

She smiled at that, "Nice."

"Who was your first kiss?"

That one was _so_ random. I didn't even think about it. I just said it. Seriously.

"Frankie, in sixth grade. We were out on the playground near some tree and he was a jackass," she chuckled.

"Let me guess, you punched him in the face?" I smiled.

"He deserved it," she defended herself, "Who was yours?"

"When I was nine, I knew this one girl named Veronica and she would always come over to our house because our moms were friends and then one day…we just kissed," I finished lamely.

"You remember things like that?" Thalia asked me.

"My memory's gotten stronger over the years," I paused and then added, "That counts as a question."

Thalia opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it and let it go. We continued playing for another two hours. It had changed from 20 questions to 1,000 questions.

During that time I had learned that Thalia had kissed Luke, wasn't sure about how she felt about her father, she had learned how to shoot a gun during the time she had been on the run, had never seen all of the Lord of the Rings, and a lot of other stuff.

I had also confessed that I had watched Wow Wow Wubbzy with this one little girl that I had babysat, almost slapped Persephone before my dad stopped me, thought she had been ridiculous for joining the hunt (which earned me a "shut the fuck up" from Thalia), had seen Clue an unhealthy amount of times, had gotten into a fight with monsters near a gun store which led me to stealing a gun and figuring out how to work it myself, and actually did hold a grudge against Mandy.

Yeah, so I lied about that. Get over it.

At about eight o'clock, we pulled up to a Marriot hotel in Kentucky. We grabbed our bags out of the trunk and walked into the front lobby feeling alright for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"One suite with two beds," I told the woman at the front desk.

She had a sharp nose, hazel eyes, and black hair that was cut into a bob. Her name tag read Sandy.

"Sorry, sweetheart," she sounded bored, "Its one bed or none. We don't have any other rooms that you can take."

Of course that would happen to us.

I looked at Thalia and gave her an uncertain look. She looked like she didn't know what to do either.

I took a deep breath, turned back to the woman at the desk, and said, "We'll take it."

**A/N: OOOOO. They only have one bed! :D **

**Alright, we now begin with all of the randomness concerning the story. :D**

**What'd you think of the prophecy? Nico's memory getting stronger over the years? **

**I wish Nico had slapped Persephone. :P **

**Obviously, it was a monster that had tried to attack Thalia when she was little, but it fled for unknown reasons. We can assume that it was because of a god. xD **

**Nico watched his mom sleep. O_O AHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Hm…Nico wanted to know who Thalia's fist kiss was. Jealous! xD **

**I've never seen the entire Lord of the Rings so I put that in for Thalia. xD **

**I watch Wow Wow Wubbzy sometimes when it's really early in the morning and nothing else is on. xD I haven't seen it lately. **

**I love the movie Clue. **

**I've never shot a real gun before, but I just thought that Thalia and Nico should know how. xD **

**I hope the traitor will not offend you guys too much. But you want to know a secret? I haven't decided who the traitor is going to be. :O I know! Call me unorganized, I don't care. xD**

**On to the randomness of my life. :D**

**I had another good week. :D Except for Thursday. Damn it! I hope Thursdays aren't becoming my bad days! D: **

**At my riding lesson on Thursday, my horse was so uncooperative and when I asked him to trot, he tried to sprint just to piss me off. :P Loser. xD**

**Oh my gosh. Yesterday was awesome! I had two soccer games in the morning, then a pool party (even though it was drizzling xD) at one of my teammate's/ friend's house, and then I went to Barnes N Nobel with one of my best friends. :D Julia! xD**

**And today I finished my book and started reading The Lost Hero! :O ****I was on Flair on Facebook and I found spoilers for The Lost Hero. T_T THEY SHOULDN'T EVEN BE UNDER PERCY JACKSON! THEY AREN'T PERCY JACKSON BOOKS! THEIR A WHOLE NEW SERIES! D: **

**Having said that, NO SPOILERS FOR THE LOST HERO IN REVIEWS! Thank you!**

**Now, questions of the day:**

**Has PJO changed your life in any way? (My answer: It got me even more interested in Greek mythology and it's inspired me to be healthier- even though I've always been pretty healthier. It just gave me a bit of a push to do even more.)**

**What was the last thing that you drank? (My answer: I think it was water…I'm thirsty.)**

**What's your favorite fan fiction on here right now? I'm not saying that you should answer, "YOURS!" or "THIS ONE!"(If it honestly is then you may say it xD), but I just want to know. I want a really good one to read right now. It can be from any book, movie, cartoon, TV show, anime, etc. (My answer: Forget it by **Sarvinocks. **It's fantastic, you should read it.)**


	9. Demigod Dreams Are Intense

**Thalia's POV**

"We'll take it," Nico told the woman named Sandy.

I bit my lip and tried not to panic. One bed…Oh, sweet Hades, I'm sleeping on the floor.

We walked through the lobby and got into the elevator (which had horrible elevator music). We walked down this red and gold hallway until we got to room 324. We were on the third floor. Well, at least we weren't _that_ high up.

We entered the room and my eyes widened a little bit.

The carpet was a deep blue with a bunch of random shapes of different colors printed on them. There was a wooden desk in the far left corner of the room with a stainless steel mini fridge by it. A black flat screen TV sat on top of a cream colored, wooden stand. In the middle of the room, pushed up against the wall, was a bed with a cream comforter on top of it.

As comfy as it looked, I will not be sleeping in it. No way. No way in Hades. I refuse to sleep in the same bed as Nico.

Nico cleared his throat awkwardly. "So…uh…do you want to take the bed? I'll just sleep on the floor," he looked uncertain of what to do.

"I'll sleep on the floor," I insisted.

"No, I'll sleep on the floor. Seriously, you're hurt. Take the bed."

"No thanks. I'll pass," I put my bag on the ground and sat down at the foot of the bed.

"Thals," Nico sighed, "Please, take the bed."

"Nico, please stop worrying," my voice sounded as bored as someone who had just come out of math class.

Nico just shook his head and tossed his bag into the right corner of the room. "I'll be sleeping on this side of the bed," he raised his eyebrows, daring me to tell him to get into the bed.

I took that dare, "No, you'll be sleeping in the bed."

"No, actually, I won't be."

I gritted my teeth and forced myself not to shock him or do anything else that might set us on the track to the bad part of our cycle.

"Okay, I'll sleep on the left side of the bed and you'll sleep on the right. We have everything figured out," I smirked at him.

He just stared at me. It was difficult for me to not squirm while under his gaze. Finally, he blinked and turned around to open his bag.

"Go check your wounds, make sure you're okay," he told me over his shoulder.

I opened my bag, grabbed my supplies, and headed to the bathroom. It was just your average hotel bathroom; everything was white and shiny- as long as you didn't look to closely, then you could see some stains on the tiles.

I lifted my shirt and tenderly peeled the bandage off of my abdominal area. There were angry red, claw marks all across my stomach. I winced just at the sight of them.

They didn't hurt that badly- unless you touched them. I took our some nectar and poured a tiny bit onto the scars. A feeling of weightlessness washed over me. I blinked a couple of times and felt a bit of panic.

I better not burst into flames.

As the moments passed, I calmed down. I wasn't burning to death, I'm all right. Plus, Nico would've been pounding on the door if I had been dying…right?

I hope so, I thought to myself bitterly.

I threw the old bandages in the trash and wrapped new ones around my gut.

There, I'm done.

I walked back into the room and found Nico standing in front of the TV, flipping through channels. I traded my supplies for my toiletries and stood back up. I was unsure whether I should announce to Nico that I was going to take a shower or not.

Oh, what do I care?

"I'm going to go take a shower," I said to him.

He turned around and grinned mischievously at me. "Okay," he answered.

I began to regret my decision to tell him about my plans. "I swear, if you do anything…" I threatened him.

He chuckled darkly, "You have my word: I'll be good."

I bit my lip and shifted uncomfortably. "Don't even think about doing anything," I muttered before walking into the bathroom and locking the door- like that would do anything.

Shit. Do you remember how I said Nico could easily get away with something because of his ability to shadow travel? Yeah, well, this is one of those things that he could get away with.

I took my shower as quickly as I could and jumped every time I heard a noise. When I was finished, I made sure that the curtain was blocking me and reached out for the towel. I dried off, with the curtain still blocking me, and then wrapped the towel around me, making sure that everything was covered. I took a deep breath and moved the shower curtain aside to find out if Nico was in the bathroom or not.

Nothing. No one was there.

I let out a sigh of relief. But that didn't stop me from putting my clothes on as fast as I could. When I was finished getting ready, I opened the door and stepped out into the room, leaving my toiletries in the bathroom.

Nico was lying on the bed watching CSI. He smirked at me. "That was fast."

"And your point is?" I rolled my eyes, trying not to give any of my anxiety away.

He stood up and grabbed his bag and began to walk to the bathroom. "Guess I don't have one," he winked at me before entering the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

I got some blankets off the bed and threw a couple on my side of the bed and the others on Nico's side. I did the same with the pillows.

I lay down on my "bed" and thought about the prophecy. Who the hell was the traitor?

I yawned and suddenly realized how tired I was. I fell asleep before Nico ever came out of the bathroom.

_I was in a sort of dungeon place. It was dark with only one light shining on chair. I was behind it so I couldn't see who was sitting there. Then a girl walked into the light._

_She had dark brown hair- almost black- down to her waist and her eyes didn't seem to have a pupil- they were so incredibly dark. Her skin was a snowy white pale color and she seemed to glow. She may have been pretty if she hadn't given off such a strong feeling of darkness. She looked about fifteen. _

_She smiled at whoever was in the chair and it reminded me of ice. Who was she?_

"_We should attack soon. They're staying in a hotel in Kentucky," she informed the person._

_The voice was tight, "We will attack when I say so."_

_My gods, I knew that voice. The traitor. I can't believe this._

_I felt as if I couldn't breathe. I have to wake up. Now!_

_The girl let out a noise of frustration, "But we need to do it soon," she whined._

"_Silence!" The voice was loud and echoed off the walls. "We have to wait for the perfect time. We have to wait for that retched son of Hades to put his guard down."_

_Oh no. Nico. No. No, no, no._

_The girl got a crazy look in her eyes and she smiled like she had just gotten the greatest idea of all time. "Get rid of the girl. It will destroy him. He may not be a son of Poseidon, but Hades and Poseidon are brothers, thus their children have similarities. Both can be very loyal."_

_The person in the chair was silent for a moment. He must not have been disgusted by the idea because the girl's smile never wavered. _

"_That could work," the voice whispered, "It shall be done. Go."_

_The girl's smiled grew brighter, "Excellent."_

_She looked up at me for the first time and her smile was completely different; it wasn't just crazy- it was evil. _

"_I'm coming for you, Thalia Grace. And you will die."_

I snapped my eyes open and sat up as quickly as I could. I was breathing as if I had just run a marathon.

_Nico._

I got out from under the covers and crawled to the other side of the bed. Nico was lying on his side, breathing steadily and silently.

I shook him. "Nico. Nico, get up."

He groaned slightly and opened his eyes. "What's the matter, Pinecone Face?" he asked sleepily.

I was suddenly speechless. "I-I…uh…get in the bed." I don't know why I said it. I just did.

He gave me a look of confusion and then let out a small laugh. "If it makes you feel any better. But you have to get in too."

I bit my lip. "Okay," I agreed quietly.

I was laying on the left side while Nico was on the right. I was practically on the edge of the bed. It may have been comfortable if I hadn't been feeling so off. The squishiness of the mattress seemed to swallow me instead of being comforting to me.

Nico looked half-awake and I could faintly smell his shampoo. "What happened?" he asked. He was lying on his side, facing me.

I flipped over from my back onto my side to face him. "I had a dream," I paused, "about the traitor."

Nico looked wide awake now. "Who is it?"

"I don't know. I mean, I know, but I don't remember," I told him lamely.

He nodded. "What happened in the dream?"

"There was a girl with the traitor and she told them to attack us. They want you to put your guard down. They want to kill me."

"Shit." He looked afraid and worried and pissed all at once. He sat up. "We need to leave. We need to get this quest over with as quickly as we can."

"Right now?" I looked at the clock. "Nico, it's three in the morning."

He had a frantic look in his eyes. "We need to get this over with and get back to camp," he repeated, but he seemed like he was talking to himself more than he was talking to me.

"Nico, you're crazy right now. You can't drive. Just get in bed and we'll leave first thing in the morning," I tried to soothe him.

He ran his fingers through his hair and let out a deep breath. "Okay."

Neither of us really slept. I would fall asleep for about half an hour and then jerk awake. Every time I woke up- and I mean _every_ single time- Nico was lying on his back, just staring up at the ceiling. I never said anything to him or looked at him for more than a couple of seconds.

Finally, it was seven in the morning. We got ready in silence and Nico checked us out while I waited in the car. We drove without any other noise aside from the radio.

I looked out the window and sighed. We were on some abandoned sort of road. There were so many trees and bushes and…no civilization. Gods.

I turned back to ask Nico where we were, when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye.

Oh gods no.

**Nico's POV**

We had been driving with nothing, but the radio on and it was starting to really bother me. I couldn't get Thalia's dream out of my mind. Who was the traitor? What did they want? Well, actually, that one could be pretty easily answered. They wanted to take over Olympus. Gods, is there any villain who wants something else?

And what about them trying to kill Thalia? I'll be dead before they succeed with that. I will not let her die. I won't.

Suddenly, Thalia screamed at me to stop. I slammed on the brakes, but I was too late. A white Sedan smashed into the side of the car. The impact caused my head to slam into the window. I tried to keep control of the car, but I wasn't doing so great.

Out of the rearview mirror, I saw the car driving up behind us. They were hitting us on purpose. My gods, they were trying to kill Thalia.

The Sedan hit us from behind and we jerked forward. My airbag activated and smacked me in the face. I was seeing black spots in random spots of my vision, but I could see enough to push the airbag out of my face.

The last thing that I saw before I blacked out was Thalia flying through the windshield.

**A/N: I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING SOON! You see, I'm a crazy woman (Actually, I'm not a child, not yet a woman. Isn't that a Britney Spears song or something? Lol) and I was writing the last chapter and the epilogue. Also, I have big news…THERE'S GOING TO BE A SEQUEL! :D**

**WARNING!: This story will get a little darker, more gory- basically, you'll see more of my depressing writing that I could become famous for. (Edgar Allen Poe's descendant. xD Jk) But I will keep some humor in there.**

**:D Guess what? You guys think that you have parts of the prophecy worked out. You don't even know. I made changes this weekend and…none of you will be expecting this. :O xD**

**Now, on to my randomness. xD**

**Sugar overload on Saturday: smoothie, pie and ice cream, bubble gum, push pop, M&Ms, and a lollipop. Plus, I watched Beauty and the Beast and Lion King. :] **

**I FINISHED THE LOST HERO! :D IT WAS AMAZING! Just saying. NICO BETTER BE IN THE NEXT ONE! And I LOVE LEO! HOW COULD YOU NOT? And I ship Jiper now. :] I made that name up while I was bored in math class (as usual. Even though, my math teacher is chill. xD)**

**Questions of the day:**

**Any changes in your life lately? (My answer: I've been feeling really optimistic lately. I have no idea why, but I don't think I mind it. :D xD)**

**Dr. Pepper or Coke? (My answer: WHY DID I MAKE THIS QUESTION? IT IS EVIL! I love Dr. Pepper, but Coke is classic. I don't know. *panic* xD)**

**What do you ship for PJO? (My answer: Obviously, Thalico. I also ship Tratie, Percabeth (who doesn't?), Grover/Juniper, Poseidon/Sally, maybe Poseidon/Athena. Oh, and Rachel/death. :D)**

**So, my lovelies, answer these questions, give me your honest feedback, and maybe even add in some randomness, just cause I love it. :] And feel free to PM me anytime- whether you want to give ideas, or you just want to talk, I will most likely respond. :D HUGS FOR EVERYONE! (HUGS NOT DRUGS!)**


	10. A Vision Or Two From Aphrodite

**Thalia's POV**

I was flying. But I wasn't high up in the air. It was bizarre, foreign. There were little specs of something hitting me. Was it water? No, it couldn't be. It was too hard and sharp to be water.

I hit something. I was skidding across it. I didn't want to open my eyes. They were too heavy. I had no way of knowing what was happening to me. But I could feel my face burn. It was sort of faint, like it didn't hurt as much as it should've. That's good right? To not feel the pain?

But I remember someone telling me once that pain was a gift from the gods to let you know that you needed to fix something. But if I wasn't really feeling pain then that meant that I didn't really have anything to fix, did I? Oh, everything is so confusing. Why should I even bother?

But I should wonder. I should try and fix it- whatever _it_ is. I have the strange feeling that this isn't right. Something is terribly wrong. More wrong than I ever thought.

The right side of my head felt hot and gooey and sticky. What was in my hair? It better not be something completely disgusting, like shit.

Things started to get louder and then quieter. Shit, I do not want to be deaf. No thank you. I heard 'Meet Me Halfway' by the Black Eyed Peas playing somewhere. What? Why could I hear music?

A memory came back to me, suddenly.

_Nico and I were at Hard Rock Café. 'Meet Me Halfway' was playing. _

"_Gods, this song…" Nico trailed off._

"_What you don't like it?" I smiled._

"_It doesn't exactly bring back the best memories." Nico got a look of despair in his eyes._

_I reached across the table and held his hands in mine. "Stop," I told him, although these words weren't mine. It was just my body saying them. Or were they mine? "Will you just stop?" I pleaded with him. I didn't sound angry or annoyed- just sad and like I wanted him to move past something. But what was he supposed to move past?_

_Nico blinked and gave me a smile- I could tell that it was all an act, but I was touched that he was trying. _

_What in the hell was going on with me? Why do I care so much about Nico's feelings all of a sudden? I mean, I've never really thought that they don't matter, but they haven't been something that's as important to me as they are now. It was clear to me now that this wasn't a memory. It was another demigod dream. Damn it._

_Nico sighed. "I'm sorry, babe."_

_I shook my head. "Just don't beat yourself up. I honestly don't see how it's your fault." This whole conversation was depressing me. "So that clearly means that it wasn't your fault." My voice was stern._

_Nico raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay." He squeezed my hands. "You want anything else?"_

"_Depends on what you mean," I answered._

_Holy. Shit. Was I…? Am I…? That is not a normal "depends on what you mean" where you're just being sort of a smartass. That was…suggestive._

_Nico gave me a cocky smile. "Well, at first I meant food-wise, but now…" he raised one eyebrow and smiled at me._

"_Well, food-wise, I'm good."_

_Damn it, we looked like a couple that Aphrodite would be going gaga over. _

"_Then I think I want to leave." Nico picked up a check that I hadn't noticed before and paid the bill. He stood up and I followed. He put his arm around my waist and again, I followed his lead. Why I did this, I have no idea. _

_Okay, yeah I do. This must be an alternate dimension where Nico and I are in love because Aphrodite has a spell on us. Yes, that sums it up._

_Nico leaned over and whispered something in my ear. Gods this was getting more and more awkward for me- well, the present me. The other me just shook her head and then…my gods, she leaned in and kissed Nico. _

_I finally realized what this was. It was the future. And it couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks away._

_The scene changed. I was in some apartment and from what décor that I could see, I was guessing that it was Nico's. Odd, why am I here?_

_Aphrodite appeared in front of me."You are so stubborn, Thalia. I had to find _some _way to get you to admit to yourself that you're falling in love," she said, answering my thoughts. _

"_Aphrodite, this isn't a great time. Can't I just leave?" I argued. "Besides, why do I care about Nico's future apartment?" _

"_You'll be spending a lot of time here, you know?" She smiled at me looking like she knew a secret that I didn't. _

"_What are you talking about?" I sighed._

"_You know what I'm talking about! Don't be so blind, Thalia!" She exclaimed. _

_And then I saw it. Actually, I guess I should say that I saw us. We were lying on the couch…making out. My gods, it looked like we could hold our breath for a long time. Or maybe we just didn't care. I don't know. Either way, I didn't see Nico and I break apart for a while._

_I suddenly had a fear that Nico and I would…um…take it to the next level. But when we broke away Nico held my face in his hands and whispered those damn three words to me. And I repeated them back to him._

**Nico's POV**

My eyes snapped open. Everything hurt. I felt like a dead weight. I could faintly hear the radio playing. I was in a daze; I didn't know what was going on. Then everything hit me like a face-full of bricks. Thalia. Flying through the windshield. Shit.

It couldn't have happened more than…wait, what time is it? Three in the afternoon. Six hours had passed.

I had a weird feeling in my gut. No. Thalia. She was slipping away, so to put it. I was so weak, but I had to get to her. I pushed the door with all the strength that I had and it wouldn't open. Then I realized that the windshield was gone. I took my seat belt off and climbed through the area where the windshield should've been. I slid down the hood of my car and crawled across the rough blacktop.

It was dark outside. That must have meant that Zeus was unhappy with our current situation. But what I want to know is, if he's so unhappy why is he not doing anything about it? Some father he is.

There she was. About thirty feet away from the car. Just lying there on her side- bloody and broken. Hot tears stung my eyes.

"Thalia," I croaked. "Thals."

No, no, no. She was fine. I was stressed and I wasn't feeling her slip away. No, she was fine. Thalia was a survivor. She's all right. She has to be. She doesn't just give up. She has to be okay.

I finally reached her after what seemed like an eternity- a very painful eternity. I rolled her over onto her back. She didn't respond to my touch. I shook her. "Thals. Thals, get up. Thalia!" My voice was getting louder each time I spoke.

Her body jerked and she turned back on her side to cough up some blood. I sent a silent prayer to my father that sounded something like this: "FUCK YES! THANK YOU DAD! I LOVE YOU! I SWEAR I'LL BE BETTER NEXT TIME I SEE PERSEPHONE! SEE? EVEN RIGHT NOW, I'M NOT CURSING HER NAME. JUST LET THALIA GET THROUGH THIS!"

I pulled her into my lap and she didn't object. She was shaking now. "Are you going to be sick?" I was starting to shake as well.

"No," she shook her head and then winced from the pain. "No, I'm not. Let's just go."

I let out a laugh that didn't have any humor in it. "Thals, where do you think we're going? And how do you think we're even leaving this place?"

"I don't know. I just want to go." She held her head in her hands.

My blood turned cold as my words sunk in and I realized how weak and fragile she felt in my arms. I sure as hell couldn't shadow travel us out of here and even if I had a car to drive, I was in no shape to drive- neither of us were.

"I don't have anywhere for us to go," I said defeated.

Thalia looked up at me and cupped my face with one of her hands. "Don't beat yourself up over it."

Gods, maybe movies aren't that cheesy with moments like these. When you're so close to death you act differently. You aren't stable, you don't make too much sense, you're harsher, you're kinder- whatever it is, you don't act like your usual self.

Thalia twitched and then let out a groan. "Ow."

A light bulb went off in my head. "I know where we're going."

Thalia looked wary. "Okay, where?"

I sent another prayer to my father, asking for his help. "We're going to the Underworld."

**A/N: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :D It's my day! CANDY! NOMNOMNOM!**

**Okay, I need to address a review that I got regarding the last chapter. Someone (notice they were anonymous) said that my story was like someone else's story on here. I am not copying anyone's story. I sit down and write what comes to mind. I don't plagiarize. And if you could review again and give me the link or the name of the story, that'd be great. Thanks.**

**Moving on now.**

**OMG! The Underworld! :D HADES YEAH!**

**Hm…I don't have too much to comment on my chapter today…um…yeah.**

**What'd you think of Thalia's describing of flying out the windshield? Realistic? What about her visions with Aphrodite?**

**ONTO THE RANDOMNESS OF MY LIFE NOW:**

**I have a story to share with you guys to show you how important honesty is. My mom didn't know about my account on here or that I am publishing stories, so when she asked me if I publish the stories that I write, online I panicked and lied to her. About ten minutes later, I wrote down my username and password, grabbed my notebook, and went downstairs to apologize to my mom and confess that I lied to her. **

**She asked if I would be upset if she read my stories, if I felt like she would be reading my diary and I let her read through the stories. I explained what was going on to her and read through everything. (By the way, my mom forgot who Hades was. xD)**

**When she was done, she started talking to me about how she isn't upset with me because she trusts me and she believes that I don't write explicit things and that she's more worried for my safety. Then she gave me the paper with my username and password on it and told me that if I had something that I wasn't sure I could publish she would trust me to come to her and she thanked me for coming to her and telling her the truth. **

**She told me that she thought I was a good writer and she enjoyed my stories and she was happy when she found out that people could comment on my stories and then most of them were good. And we started talking about me signing up for community college classes in the summer and me entering writing contests.**

**So, anyways (I ramble so much. I'm sorry T_T) moral of the story: because I was honest with her everything turned out okay. SO BE HONEST! EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY IN THE END! (Come on, I tell you guys this every time you worry about something in the story. :] )**

**(And after this all went down, we watched a movie and my mom showed me how to make popcorn the way her sister taught her. :D)**

**And yesterday, I put fake blood on my face and walked past my mom and she acted like it was totally normal for me to do. And then she got confused when I started singing 'California Gurls' by Katy Perry. xD**

**ONTO THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY NOW:**

**What are (were, if you're reading this after Halloween) your plans for Halloween? (My answer: I'm hanging out with two of my best friends and then one of them is leaving early so the other is staying with me and I'm having neighbors over. :D)**

**Are you an honest person? (My answer: About 95% of the time. If it's something harsh, I'll try and find a nicer way to say it.)**

**And…**

**Anything you want to share? It can be anything. (My answer: My rambling sort of author's notes are my answer for this. xD) **

**I HEART YOU GUYS! :']**


	11. Hades Isn't That Bad

**Thalia's POV**

I cleared my throat and opened my mouth to say something to Nico, but I didn't know what to say so I closed my mouth. I coughed. "Um…" Where do I ever begin to say what I'm thinking right now?

"Come on, Thals. You need help. Just trust me," he pleaded with me.

I blinked a couple of times and let out a deep breath. "Um…I guess, yeah."

Nico stared at me for a second. "Are you scared?" He didn't sound like he was making fun of me, just curious.

"Not exactly. I just think that being down where everyone goes when they die while I'm close to death is not going to comfort me right now." I cleared my throat once again before continuing. "But we have to, so let's go."

Nico's grip on my loosened and I almost pulled him close to me so I wouldn't lose his comfort, but stopped myself before I could. He stood up and tentatively walked over to…a pile of rocks.

"Uh…Nico, I'm not a child of Hades, so please, tell me how a pile of rocks is going to help us. Unless that's the entrance to the Underworld?"

He shook his head. "It's not."

"Then why are you looking at it?"

"I think I may be able to get a reading from it."

I just stared at the ground, uncertain of what to say. "What?" I finally blurted out.

"I'm a son of Hades, sometimes this stuff happens. Just trust me."

A wave of nausea passed over me. "Whoa." I felt so lightheaded.

"What's the matter?" Nico came back over to me as quickly as he could. My vision blurred. "Thals." His voice was so distant. "Thals!" There was fear in his voice now. It was odd to hear him so afraid for me.

I tried to assure him that I was fine, but before I could even say anything my vision began to blacken and my eyelids became unnaturally heavy. I felt the ground start to shake and I wondered if it was just my imagination. But before I could think about it for more than two seconds, I blacked out.

I woke up several times, but for no longer than a minute. The first time I woke up I saw a shadow move and passed out again before I could figure out what it was. The next time, I heard a sound as if someone were crying. The time after that, I heard people shuffling around outside. The final time, I heard urgent whispering from outside the door.

When I finally woke up for more than five seconds, I was greeted by silence and darkness. I had no idea where I was, but I was kind of uneasy about this place. The mattress beneath me was cushiony and the covers were black. _Everything_ in the room was black- well, almost everything.

The door creaked as it was opened, presumably someone trying to be quiet. I began to hope and that it would be Nico coming to get me so that we could go back to our lives now. I shifted around in the bed and tried to sit up. It was Nico, but he didn't look like he would be telling me any great news.

"Hey," his voice was soft, "Feeling any better?"

As soon as he mentioned it, I realized that I did feel better. I didn't have any broken bones- at least not from what I could tell- and aside from cuts and bruises, I was healed. "Yeah, actually, I do." I gave him a small smile that he returned. "Where exactly are we?"

"We're in my father's…home."

Hades' Palace. Holy. Shit. Nobody was allowed in here, except for his children. Why did he let me in here? Did he even care if I died or not? No, it was probably because he needed the quest to be finished so he wouldn't have to worry about too much.

"Oh," I managed to squeak out.

"Um…Thals, I hate to just throw this on you, but we need to have a talk with my dad."

A chill ran through my body. "Okay." I did my best to look brave…I'm not sure about how well it worked.

"All right, let's go." Nico held out his hand for me and I took it, throwing the covers off of me and standing up.

The palace was…amazing. It was so dark and exotic. There were skulls everywhere and leather and black and cherry wood furniture. I now understood how similar Nico's cabin was to his dad's palace.

While walking down the halls, I noted that I was wearing a black Linkin Park shirt now and a clean pair of black skinny jeans that had once been in my suitcase, along with my Converse. And then I thought about how these clothes got on me. I blushed at the thought of someone else dressing me. It didn't go unnoticed.

"Are you all right?" Nico asked, but for a different reason this time.

"Oh, um, I'm fine. Just wondering, how did these clothes get on me?"

"Dad worked some magic. No one touched you, I promise." Nico put his hands up in surrender.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay," I said, more at ease now.

I tensed up again as soon as we entered a big room with a long, dark wooden table with marble floors and walls. It was…

"The dining room," Nico finished my thought for me aloud, although I have no idea how he knew what I was thinking.

"Your dad has a dining room?" I don't know, it just seemed a bit odd to me. I don't really think about gods eating and sleeping and doing other normal things that everyone else does.

"Yes, I do." And there he was. Wearing black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a black leather jacket, he was the most casually dressed of the gods. He looked about thirty and he had a bit of muscle. With his sleek, black hair halfway down his neck and his eyes almost black, it was easy to see where Nico got his looks from. Hades.

"Lord Hades," I greeted.

He chuckled, a sort of dark chuckle. "My brother's daughter in my own palace, being cared for, and becoming close with my own son. Who would've thought?"

I tried not to blush at the whole me-becoming-close-with-Nico thing. "Who would've thought?" I agreed.

He smiled and pulled out a chair at the end of the table, sitting down as telling us to do the same. Nico led me down the table to two chairs next to Hades. Nico sat in the chair closer to his father. "How are you feeling?" Hades asked.

"Much better, thank you." My voice sounded guarded. "I appreciate all of your help," I added in hopes of not making him angry. I wasn't exactly sure of what set Hades off so it was safest to just use every possible manner that parents teach you when you're little.

"Yes, well, you're welcome." Nico cleared his throat and gave his dad a look that clearly said _get on with it!_

Hades let out a deep breath. "Where to begin…"

"How about we start with explaining what you know about the prophecy?" Nico suggested.

"Alright. Well, I know that you two need to go somewhere where there's lots of people and hotels and sinning and lots of places to hide things…or people. A place where," Hades looked over at Nico before shifting his gaze, "I would not wish Nico to go again." Hades seemed to age about fifty years right then and it struck me at how baffling it is to see Hades, of all people, upset.

"Vegas," I said quietly.

"Yes," Hades replied darkly. "Well, it must be done. We need it back."

My brow furrowed in confusion. "Need what back?"

"My keys." I almost laughed- it sounded like he was talking about his car keys or something- but then I remembered something.

"The Keys of Hades," I sighed. Why does it have to be those?

"Yes, it is rightfully ours. Well, mine, but still." Hades shrugged.

"Dad, don't be such a drama queen," Nico muttered.

I bit my lip and stifled a giggle and then realized that Nico could get in some serious trouble for talking to his dad like that. But I was wrong.

"Well!" Hades exclaimed and then stuck his tongue out at Nico. I almost thought that I was hallucinating, but I guess not.

"How much time do we have?" I asked.

"Well, they may have already used them, to be honest, so there isn't exactly a timeline, but you two need to be quick."

"We will be," Nico reassured him.

Hades nodded. "Good."

"Do you know anything else about the prophecy- who took them, why, why camp was attacked?" Nico asked.

A dark look washed over Hades face. "No, I'm sorry. I wish I knew." He turned to me and folded his hands on the table. "Thalia, I need to speak to you alone now."

My blood turned to ice. "Uh…" Nico trailed off beside me.

"It'll be fine. I'm not going to do anything." Hades rolled his eyes.

I didn't really want to talk to Hades alone, but what if it was something crucial to our quest? "That's fine." I turned to Nico and tried to smile, "Wait me for me outside?"

He slowly started to stand up, "Yeah. Yeah, I'll just be outside till you guys are done." He eyed his dad suspiciously and then left the room.

Hades gaze met mine as soon as the door clicked shut. "Aphrodite has informed me of a visit that she had with you that night."

It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't known how long I had been out. Avoiding his last comment, I asked him, "How long had I been passed out?"

"Two days. Now, there's no use in avoiding this talk."

_Oh sweet baby Zeus, not "the talk"! You aren't even my dad! Help me! _

"I understand that Aphrodite thinks that you and Nico would be…'the best couple ever'," he quoted. "I would just like to caution you two on letting feelings get in the way. I doubt this quest will be easy and obviously death will be involved so use your brain as well as your heart." It sounded odd to hear Hades tell me to follow my heart. There were a lot of odd things today.

"Do you know anything about those deaths?" I questioned.

"No, but death is a common part of quests. And Olympus has a bad feeling about this quest. Look, Thalia, if you or Nico start to die…" He gave me a sympathetic look, "one of you needs to go on and finish the quest. We need those keys back! If you one of you dies, I'll step in and let you rest in peace. But you must not become resentful of me when I don't step in to save your lives. As much as I'd like to, that's not my job and I don't have a say in it. That's the Fates' job."

I nodded. "I understand, Lord Hades. Thank you."

"Be careful, Thalia." He stood up and I followed suit. Hades put his hand on the door handle and stopped. "You and Nico need to trust each other. I hope you know that."

"I do," I replied quietly, thinking of all that Nico and I have been through in the short times that we've interacted together. "I do trust him." And it was true, I did.

Hades smiled at me. "Very good." He opened the door to reveal Nico talking to some skeleton warriors. Nico shooed them as soon as he saw us and they turned to dust.

"Everything all right?" Nico asked.

"Yes," Hades answered. "Now, you two must go. Be safe; keep your eyes open, stick together."

"Of course," Nico nodded. He stuck his hand out to me and I took it in my own, blushing slightly at the thought of Hades watching us hold hands. Nico started to lead me down a hall when Hades called out to us, "I'll be watching over you two. Just call if you need me."

I smiled. Hades isn't that bad.

**A/N: I am so sorry! It's been two weeks since I last updated. :P I suck. Whatever. xD**

**So let's just "cut to the chase" or whatever they say, chill? Chill.**

**Randomness concerning the story:**

**HADES! :D HE IS CHILL! Don't you agree? ^^**

**What do you think is going on with camp being attacked?**

**Okay so not much on the story today…LOL.**

**Randomness concerning my life:**

**So, first of all, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer and Thalico for answering about how my story is like someone else's. Thalico said that mine sounded like Gummy Rocks and anonymous said that it was like an author who is on my favorite's list….I am going to assume that that is Gummy Rocks. So I would just like to say: no, my stories are my own. I did not copy from Gummy Rocks. We may have some similarities here and there, but they're general. So thank you for responding, but I don't think your reasons are valid. Now, let's move on and forget about this, shall we? No hard feelings. :] **

**Friday was TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms, charity for depression) day! :DD I wore my shirt and wrote "love" on my arms. Did anyone else participate?**

**Awww. My soccer season is over. ;A; Thursday night was my party. I'm so sad, but I'm glad for the memories. :'] And I have horseback riding, so that'll be good. ^^ **

**Questions of the day:**

**Are you excited for the 7****th**** Harry Potter? (My answer: FUCK YES! ONLY 4 MORE DAYS! OMG OMG OMG!)**

**What's your favorite type of juice? (My answer: AJ! Apple juice! :D)**

**If you get homework over the weekend, what type is it usually? (My answer: Math and history. In fact, I still have to finish mine. :P)**


	12. We Make A New Discovery About Me

**Nico's POV**

I led Thalia down the hall, through the palace, back to the room where she had been…um…sleeping in. We didn't talk the whole way, which sucks for me because that gave me time to think and I wasn't really ready to think about everything right now. I didn't want to think about how Thalia had almost died, about how it had brought up my feelings about how I felt about all the women in my life leaving me, about the talk that my dad and I had just last night.

"_She's going to wake up soon. By tomorrow, I think." _

_We were sitting in the room, watching Thalia's limp figure breathe steadily. My eyes were raw from crying. I think under normal circumstances I would've been more conscious of letting my dad see me like this. But I didn't care right now._

"_You think so?" I asked quietly._

"_Yeah, I do," my dad whispered to me as he put his hand on my knee."Everything will be all right. Don't worry." We sat there in silence for a couple of seconds. "You love her."_

_It wasn't a question. It was just a fact. "Yes. Do you…does that bother you? Or…" I trailed off, uncertain of what I actually wanted to know about my dad's thoughts on Thalia and me. _

_He shook his head, but his eyes were distant. "No, it's your choice. And I think…I think that as soon as you started to get older and you saw Thalia more after she was kicked out of the hunt, I just…knew that you…viewed her differently. I…I could see that you loved her- or at least cared for her deeply- from the way you looked at her." He paused and pressed his lips together before continuing."I used to look at your mother the same way."_

_I finally asked my dad the question that had been on my mind for years now, "Where is she, Dad?" _

_He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Well, she's here in the Underworld, of course," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. _

"_Well, yeah, but she's obviously not with all the other souls…or is she?"_

"_She's in Elysium…just kind of…hidden. But Bianca is with her now." He looked at me sadly._

_A lump formed in my throat and my tears started to burn my eyes. I pulled my body in so that it seemed like it was closing in on itself. _

"_I'm so sorry, Nico. I'm so sorry." That was the first time that I'd ever heard my dad apologize to me for everything that's happened in the past with my family._

I pushed the memory out of my mind as I realized that we were now at the door. I reached out with the hand that wasn't in Thalia's grasp and opened the door. I turned the lights on as Thalia let go of my hand and slowly walked to the middle of the room.

"This is your room, isn't it?" Thalia asked.

I leaned against the wall. "Yeah."

She turned to look at me. "Sorry for kicking you out," she joked.

"Gods, you should be." I smiled at her and she laughed.

"I know, that's why I am. So how often do you stay here?" She looked around the room, her eyes taking everything in.

"Um…usually whenever I feel like it. There isn't really a-" I searched for the right way to say it, "-time that I stay here. But when I was eleven I used to come here all the time- even though I wasn't exactly fond of my dad at the time."

"How do you feel about him now?" Her eyes searched my face.

"Once you get to know him he's a pretty good dad."

She smiled and walked over to me. "Good." She stood about two feet in front of me and I had to stuff my hands in my pockets to keep myself from reaching out to touch her. She moved closer and put her hand on my chest. Oh gods…

"I trust you, you know that right?"

"Yeah. I trust you as well."

She stared at me for a moment and I waited for her to say something else. I thought she was going to go into some conversation about the quest, but she didn't say a word. She leaned in and kissed me. I took my hands out of my pocket and pulled her closer. Her fingers laced in my hair and I put one of my hands on the side of her face. We just stayed like that for a couple of minutes- just slowly kissing each other.

Thalia pulled back and looked at me. For the first time, I realized how nervous she must be about "having feelings" for me. I mean to go from the belief that you'll never date again to kissing someone else just after two months of being kicked out of the hunt, isn't just a small change. I wanted to tell her that I wasn't going to make her do anything she didn't want to do, but I couldn't seem to find the right words. But I didn't have to say anything because she was already telling me something that I had wondered about for a long time.

"This is why I got kicked out of the hunt."

Did I hear that right? "What?"

"The huntresses and I saw you one time. I think we were out somewhere in California-"

_Oh, I remember that_.

"-and you were walking towards the entrance of the Underworld. But none of the other girls knew that, all they saw was you walking to the Hollywood sign. And everyone did what they normally do when there's a guy around- they insulted you."

_Well, fuck them._

"But for once, I didn't agree with them and I just kept quiet. And I don't think that went unnoticed. To be honest, I'm surprised that Artemis didn't kick me out earlier."

"You fell for me when you saw me walking towards the entrance to the Underworld?" I asked in confusion.

"No," she laughed. "I just realized then that I had fallen for you."

"Then when did you fall for me?"

"A couple months ago when the huntresses came to visit camp and you, me, Percy, and Annabeth were hanging out down by the lake and you threw me in."

"I wondered why you didn't get that pissed off at me. And I only threw you in because you threw my ring in the lake. I only saw it as fair to make you go get it." We laughed and it seemed like everything was going to be all right. But then we were reminded of having to leave and continue on the quest. Damn.

"Well," I let out a sigh. "I guess we better go."

"Fun," Thalia responded sarcastically. She went over to the side of the bed and grabbed her jacket that I had brought in from the car the other day when I thought she was going to wake up.

"I know, babe." I put my arm around her waist and led her through the Underworld, back to the living where my new car was waiting for us- by shadow traveling of course.

"Gods, you already got a new car?" Thalia asked.

I laughed. "Did you think that my dad was just going to make us walk? Hell no. But since we left the Underworld through the Hollywood entrance, it'll only take us a few hours to get to Vegas."

"Great," Thalia dragged the 'a' out as she responded.

"It'll be fine." I gave her a reassuring smile.

"Okay, let's go."

Thankfully, our ride to Vegas was pretty normal. We didn't have any other car accident and we didn't have monsters attack. But of course, that was just the ride there and when we actually got to Vegas…we weren't so lucky.

I pulled up a Ralphs and shut the engine off. "You staying here or coming in?"

"Um….I'll stay here," Thalia answered.

"Okay, what do you want?" I asked as I unbuckled my seatbelt.

"A pack of 5 Gum, People magazine, and Reese's Pieces. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

I went into the store and hastily grabbed whatever was on the list that Thalia had given me and whatever I felt like getting. When I went back out to the car and threw the bags into the backseat, I got a strange feeling that something wasn't right.

I looked across the parking lot to see a man staring right back at me. He was big! I would guess that he was about five inches taller than me- and I'm 6' 2"- and he had some meat and muscle on his bones. Wait a second. Does that guy have two eyes? Or one?

I opened the driver door slowly while keeping my eyes on the guy. "Thalia, get out of the car." I kept my voice low and tried to look neutral.

"What?" she asked in disbelief, but she didn't raise her voice any higher than mine.

"Thalia, get out of the car. Now," I repeated myself.

I heard her unbuckle her seatbelt- _click_- and she cautiously got out of the car. "What now?" she questioned me almost nervously.

"We leave for a couple of minutes. Come on." I tore my eyes away from the man and started to walk down the sidewalk with Thalia by my side now.

"What's wrong?" I could tell that she was trying to look like nothing exciting was going on, but I could still see a hint of anxiousness in her eyes.

I don't think lying to her is going to solve anything. "I think there's a baby Cyclops over there," I answered honestly.

"What?" Thalia hissed. "Where?"

"Across the parking lot," I told her.

She casually glanced over her shoulder. "Fuck!" she hissed when she turned her head back around. "There's no one there."

"What?" I hissed back at her, beginning to feel somewhat panicked.

"Where did it go? And we can't just keep walking around blind, hoping that we won't get attacked."

"Well, I'm not taking the chance of getting into another car accident." A feeling of guilt washed over me as soon I said it. If only I had been paying more attention…

"Okay, okay." She fell silent, probably thinking of a plan. "What if we go hang out in a store for a couple of minutes and then just go back to the car? It's going to look weird if we walk all this way just to go all the way back."

"That's all we're going to do?" I asked.

Thalia reached out and smacked my arm. "Yes that's all we're going to do. Sometimes simple is the best."

I never got to respond. The baby Cyclops popped out of nowhere and knocked me to the ground. I think I may have heard something snap. Shit. "Get out, Thals," I grunted while grabbing my sword out of the shadows.

I charged the Cyclops and missed driving my sword into its back by about two inches. Damn. I swung again and it knocked my sword out of my hand. I didn't know where Thalia was and I didn't have a weapon. Luck me…

The Cyclops was ready to charge me when I made a wish for it to just become unconscious. It ran at me and I stuck my hand out instinctively and then the weirdest thing happened- the Cyclops dropped unconscious. I looked over to my right and saw Thalia staring at the Cyclops in disbelief. She turned to me, "What did you just do?"

"I…I don't know."

"Wait a second. I remember reading something about children of Hades being able to-" she paused, "-to put people to sleep by…pointing at them." She looked at the Cyclops, understanding it all now.

"I can do that?" I asked as I checked for any broken bones. All my bones seemed to be fine, thankfully.

"Well, yeah. Here's your evidence," she said while pointing at the unconscious figure.

"Wow…" I thought about my newly discovered power. This could come in handy. But it does use a lot of energy… "Could you do me a favor?" I asked Thalia.

"Um, sure. What is it?" she asked curiously.

"Will you drive for me?"

Thalia smiled and took my hand. "Come on, Dead Boy. Let's go."

**A/N: THALICO IS NOW CANON IN THIS STORY! :DD**

**I UPDATED! AREN'T YOU PROUD! xD Just kidding. So anyways, I think I'm skipping any personal stories in this A/N ): Aww. But for sure the next chapter. ^^ Now I'm going to be answering all the unanswered questions (I got these from reviews and I also reread my story to look for loose ends) in the next couple of chapters, so here are the Q&A for this chapter.**

**But one quick thing, I looked up Nico's powers and it said that he has the ability to put people to sleep by pointing at them and I thought that was pretty cool, so I added that in. :) Okay, so it's Q&A time!**

**Why did Thalia get kicked out of the hunt? Well, that one's pretty obvious. But good news! I think I may write a one-shot for the time that Thalia mentioned when she fell for Nico and I'll add in the part about the huntresses seeing him.**

**Why didn't they take two rooms in chapter 8? That was actually explained in the chapter itself, but I want to clear it up anyways. There weren't any other rooms to take, so they settled for that one. **

**So anyways, on to the questions of the day. (:**

**Who caught my mistake in chapter 9 when Thalia took a shower after putting band-aids on? Ahahaha! I can't believe I did that. xD**

**What did you guys do for Thanksgiving? (My answer: I went to both of my parents' parents' homes. It was pretty fun.)**

**What did you have for dinner? (My answer: Subway! :D)**

**Give me all your honest feedback and answers in a review! Thank you, my lovelies!**

**Also, I can't wait to reveal who the traitor is! I think that may be the next chapter! And another shocker is going to be in that chapter as well. I highly doubt you guys will see this one coming…SUSPENSE! xD **


	13. Nightmares Galore

**Thalia's POV**

I cut the engine as we pulled up to the parking lot for hotel New York-New York. Why were we here? I don't really know. I just took directions from Nico as I drove along the long streets of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tons of people filled the sidewalks, walking in and out of hotels and restaurants, theaters, and shops. Billboards were everywhere advertising anything from shows to food to businesses. I let out a deep breath.

"Well," Nico said from beside me, "this should be fun."

I rolled my eyes. "We're not here for fun, Di Angelo."

He turned to me and pouted. "What?" he asked in mock surprise.

I opened the door and climbed out. "Come on," I called to him as I rolled my eyes once more.

We walked through the wide front doors and were greeted with the noise of gambling machines dinging, the chatter amongst players, and some music playing in the distant background. The smell of smoke and cleaning supplies filled my nose.

"So why here?" I asked, turning to look at Nico.

"Because their food isn't shit, they have a rollercoaster here, and their arcade is awesome," he answered seriously.

I couldn't help it; I started cracking up and I just couldn't stop. I clutched my side after a couple minutes and managed to gasp, "How do you know this?"

"The mist comes in handy. I could get into this place when I was only _thirteen_."

I had to admit, I was impressed. "Nicely done," I complimented him while attempting to calm down from my laughing fit.

"Thank you," he answered as he grabbed our bags and walked towards the check- in counter.

Nico pulled out his driver's license and showed it to the man at the counter. "One Marquis Suite, please."

The man began to protest, but stopped suddenly and smiled. "Of course, Mr. Di Angelo." He reached for a room key and checked us in. "Enjoy your stay," the man smiled one last time as Nico took the key from his outstretched hand.

We walked to the elevator in silence and entered with about five other people. When we reached our floor an already drunk man stumbled down the hallway singing 'Happy Birthday' to the air. The man came closer to us and I could see that he was balding and had a "beer belly". He turned and looked at Nico. "Happy birthday, man."

"Thanks. You have a great day, man," Nico answered.

"I will, I will," the drunk mumbled to himself as he stumbled down the rest of the hallway.

As soon as he was out of sight I slapped Nico on the back. "Why did you answer?"

"He wasn't going to hurt us." Nico laughed.

I shook my head and grabbed the key from Nico's hand. The door swung open to reveal a long, dark cabinet that withheld a TV, a couch, a table with four chairs, and a huge bed. The thing that caught my eye the most was the giant bathtub in the front of the room with a small bench on the other side.

"Why is there a giant bathtub out in the open?" I asked.

"I think it's a spa for spa days or something." Nico grinned at me mischievously, "It could be used for something else though."

I prayed that I wasn't blushing as I reached out to slap Nico across the chest. "Shut up."

"I didn't mean sex." He rolled his eyes. I turned away before he could see my blush deepen.

"Would you just be quiet?" I walked over to the bed, doing my best to hide my face.

"I just meant that being in a Jacuzzi right now does not seem that bad."

"We're on a quest. We don't have time to relax and do whatever we want," I answered as I sat down on the bed.

Nico sighed. "I know. Too damn bad, it would've been nice."

"I know," I admitted.

"So what are we going to do now?" Nico asked while dropping our bags onto the floor.

"I don't know. I'm kind of tired from the five hour car ride. Do we have to go out and search right now?" I prayed that I could get some sleep before we had to go out again.

"No. We can stay here for a little while if you want." Nico sat down on the bed next to me.

"Okay, wake me in an hour or two," I told him.

"Sure." I could tell he didn't mean it.

"Why not?"

He wrapped his arms around me. "Because I want you to get some rest. Just go to sleep. It'll be fine," he assured me.

"Fine," I muttered before laying my head down on his chest. In just seconds, I was asleep.

_I was sitting at the Hard Rock Café I had seen in my past dream of Nico and I. Aphrodite sat across from me. "Hello, Thalia," she greeted me with a smile. "I am just _so_ happy to see that you and Nico are finally together. Team Thalico!" She fist bumped the air._

"_Team Thalico? Honestly?" I let out a frustrated sigh. "What do you want to show me this time? More fake visions?"_

"_Hey! They were not fake!" she complained. "Just a bit exaggerated," she muttered to where I could barely hear her._

_I pointed my finger at her. "Ha! I knew it!" _

"_Yeah, yeah. So, I'd just like to give you a warning. You're welcome," she added._

"_I'll thank you when I feel it's appropriate. What's your warning?" I asked, fearing that it was something to do with the traitor._

"_Your father knows about your new relationship and he would like to speak to you very soon."_

_I was stunned into silence for a moment. "What? Why should he care? He doesn't even love me! It's none of his business!"_

"_Thalia, you must understand that while you and your father may not get along, he still loves you and feels that he must take responsibility to you. You are also Zeus' daughter which means that you technically have the Zeus blood in you and he feels he must approve of your choice of significant other for if you have children with them you will be identified as Zeus' family."_

"_So it's all about image?" I said, disgusted with Zeus for being so shallow._

"_It's more than that, dear. Trust me." She gave me a small smile. "It'll all be all right. I must go now. Do take care of yourself."_

_And with that she was gone._

**Nico's POV**

I don't know how long it was until I had fallen asleep as well, but when I did I ended up on top of the roof of hotel Monte Carlo.

_It was empty up here. I could hear cars below and the sun beat down on me, hot and uncomfortable. Why was I seeing this? There was nothing to see._

_But then there was._

_The door to the entrance of the roof swung open to reveal Thalia and me running out and slamming the door behind us._

"_If we jump off I can cushion our fall," I told Thalia._

"_How?" she asked hysterically._

"_I can get rid of some of the hard dirt, so we land on the softer dirt. The most injury we'll get is scratches and some bruises. It's the best shot we've got."_

"_No." Thalia looked over the side of the building._

"_Thalia, they're coming. We have to get out!"_

_She tore her gaze away from the ground and looked at me. "I can fly us down." _

_I hesitated. "Thals, I don't know about that."_

"_Why not? I'm a daughter of Zeus. It's in my blood."_

"_I know it is, but you're terrified of heights and we don't even know if you have the energy for it," I argued._

"_I bet I do. Just let me do it," she begged._

_The door swung open to reveal a dark figure. Who was tha-_

Thalia screamed in bed beside me as I jerked awake.

**Thalia's POV**__

_I was back in the room with the traitor, except the girl from last time wasn't there. There was a boy there- a boy about fourteen years old with chocolate brown eyes and hair to match._

_I couldn't see who was speaking to him, but I knew it was the traitor. "Rob. Rob, Lisa failed me with her attempt to get rid of Thalia. You must do better."_

_Lisa? She must've been driving the car that crashed into us. I couldn't feel much sympathy for her for whatever happened to her. But was she the girl who I saw last time? Or was it someone else?_

_Rob nodded. "I will. I'll get rid of her."_

"_Good." The figure stood up with its back to me. I could tell that it was a male._

"_If you can't kill her, at least capture her and bring her back to me and Khione."_

_Khione? That was the goddess of snow. She was the girl I saw last time! _

"_Yes sir." Rob nodded once again._

"_Excellent." The figure turned around to face me. I screamed._

"Thalia! Thalia, its okay. It was just a dream," Nico cooed to me.

"Hades was right. The Keys were already used. They must have been used. It's the only way." I was speaking to myself more than I was speaking to Nico.

"Thalia, what are you talking about?" I could tell he was getting worried now.

"And we aren't even the new relationship that was stated in the prophecy. I'm sure of it. It's him and Khione. They have a relationship. They're bonding over their want to kill us and…well, I don't know what else they're planning, but it definitely isn't good," I rambled.

"What? Khione as in the snow goddess? And who is this guy that you're talking about? What is happening?" Nico asked.

"The traitor, Nico. The traitor is Michael Yew."

**A/N: HA! I bet **_**none**_** of you saw that one coming! The long wait is over! You all know who the traitor is! And Thalia and Nico aren't the new relationship. Oh my! What will happen next? Read next time to find out. xD**

**So, let's do Q&A first, shall we? :)**

**Some people say he gets it [his sword] from the ground, why did you make it out of the shadows? ****I just think that because he can manipulate the shadows, he should be able to pull stuff from the shadows. xD I don't know, I just came up with it.**

**Are they still in that "cycle" or has it been broken? I think it has been broken. :] I'm bored with it. xD**

**Are you gonna have Zeus weigh in on Thalico? Obviously! :D I think that'll be in the next chapter.**

**Now, I promised I would have personal stories/comments for the story in this one, so here we are.**

**OMG! The rollercoaster at New York-New York is so chill! :D**

**Last time I went to Vegas, some guy was out in the hallway singing to himself. O_O My brother and I could not stop laughing. xD**

**I stayed home sick on Friday. :P I'm still kind of sick. xP And I was bored on Friday and I couldn't write this chapter yet (no inspiration :P) so I wrote the longest rant in rant history about teen girls. I posted it on my Facebook and all my friends were like "This is the best thing I've ever read!" I think it's my new hobby. xD**

**I went to the mall with my friend today and this guy was like "Do you straighten your hair?" Or at least I think that's what he asked. And I was like "Oh yeah!" and then I walked away and turned around was all "Have a great day!" and he just looked at me weird. xD Remember when I said that I don't like having my hair straightened in the middle of the mall? Yeah, that was in chapter 2. xD **

**So, let's talk about my other stories for just a minute here. I realize that I really need to update 'Unexpected Visit' so I'll do that sometime this week. I also need to write my fic for when Thalia fell for Nico. And I'm making another one called 'Game Night' that's going to be all the over-used games that we hear about in fanfics (i.e. Truth or Dare, Would You Rather, I've Never, 7 Minutes in Heaven) but I'm going to try and make them better than the ones that you usually see. xD A little sneak peak for that one, the group shall consist of Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Thalia, Katie, Travis, Clarisse, Grover, Kayla (she's in TLO and she's a daughter of Apollo, look her up), and Connor. :D**

**On to the questions of the day!**

**Who did you think was going to be the traitor? (I almost made it Demeter or one of the other minor characters, but I thought bringing Michael back would be much more interesting. Y/Y?)**

**Who's excited for Christmas? (My answer: OMG! ONLY 13 DAYS LEFT! :D)**

**What's a fanfiction that you would like to see me write? No guarantees, but I may take some and write a story. You never know. And I will give you credit/ dedicate it to you if I decide to write it.**

**I'll be busy writing and I'll do my best to publish as much as I can. Have a great couple of days (?) until the next time I publish. :D**


	14. A Visit To The Lotus Casino

**Nico's POV**

My blood ran cold. "What? No." I stared at her, but turned away quickly. "No. He fought in the war with us. He died for Olympus. No."

"The one we least expect, Nico. I know what I'm talking about," Thalia's shaky voice came from behind me on the bed.

I ran my fingers through my hair. "This is so…fucked up. That's what it is! Fucked up! How do you even kno-" My voice faltered as I turned around to find Thalia tearing up. I pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry."

"For what? You aren't the one who betrayed Olympus," she said, her voice hardly louder than a whisper.

"We need to go out and search for answers. Or something. Anything to help us finish the quest," I babbled.

She pulled back from me. "We're going to go out searching when we don't even know what we're searching for?"

"Well…we know that we need to find my dad's keys," I said lamely.

Thalia exhaled shakily. "I can't deal with any more traitors," she whispered.

Luke. Of course. I didn't even think about how this must hurt her. She may not have been close to Michael, but she was close to Luke and all this was doing was bringing up the memories of it all.

I looked at the floor. "It's going to be fine. I promise you. I'll make sure that we don't kill Michael right away. We'll talk to him first."

She let out a sad laugh. "You think Olympus will actually do something like that?"

I gave her a look. "You think I'm actually going to step back and let them kill him right away after all that he's done for Camp and for Olympus? He's just hurt and needs someone to help him." _Like Luke_, I almost added.

Thalia smiled. "You're a good guy, Nico."

"I hope you're right," I said. She shot me a look of confusion. "Come on," I said quickly, realizing that I should have kept my mouth shut. She can't know about what I tricked out the ring to actually do. Not when I didn't even know if I was going to go to the Fields of Punishment for this. I took her hand before she could ask me any questions.

A soon as we walked out of the hotel, Thalia groaned. "Why does it have to be so damn hot?" she asked.

I turned and smirked at her. "'Cause I'm here."

She snorted. "Get real, Di Angelo."

"Damn, it is hot out here," I said as we walked down the street.

Thalia went on, "Now, think- if that doesn't hurt you too badly."

I grabbed my side sarcastically. "Ha-ha. I'm just pissing myself with laughter."

She winked at me. "If you were your dad's keys where would you hide?" she asked dramatically.

"Well," I answered. "If I were my dad's keys I wouldn't hide at all because I'm just keys and I can't move." Thalia raised one eyebrow. "But if I were hiding my dad's keys I would put them somewhere where my dad wouldn't really want to go."

"Okay, Smart One, this is a quest for you and me. Good thinking, but it isn't about where your dad doesn't want to go."

"So, it's about where you and I don't want to go," I said, thinking of a list of places where I wouldn't want to go. The Fields of Punishment is one for sure. It isn't very nice down there. Trust me.

"Most likely." We both stood there and thought for a moment, people pushing past us.

"Well," Thalia sighed. "I heard that restaurant down there isn't that great." I stared at her. "Seriously, I heard there are bugs inside."

"Alright, that's nasty."I listed places in my head. School isn't that great, but I doubt someone would hide an ancient weapon at a school. "Wait, who even said that they just dropped it off and left it for us to find it? They're already using it. They'll probably use it again. I don't think they want us to find them."

"Yeah, they probably want a bigger army," Thalia said thoughtfully. "Son of a bitch. Now we have to go find _someone_ with the keys."

A thought popped into my head. "The Lotus Casino. I wouldn't want to go back there and my dad wouldn't want me to go back there."

Thalia swallowed. "It's worth a shot."

It only took us about ten minutes to walk over there. As soon as we got there I got this sick feeling in my stomach this was not going to go well. I just knew it.

"Hello, welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino," the man at the door greeted us. "We've just added a new floor full of the latest from EA games. Our water slides have been recently reconstructed as well. Here's your gaming card and enjoy your stay." He handed us the cards and we smiled and took them.

We stepped inside and a woman instantly cornered us. "Here, have our Lotus flower. It's our special and our most popular snack here. They're lovely. Take as many as you wish." She smiled.

We each grabbed one. "Thanks," we muttered and walked off. I could feel the woman's gaze on us the whole time we walked to across the room. As soon as we were out of sight, we threw them to the side.

I looked around and felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. I remember being here with my sister. She loved playing all these fashion games and I was always playing some shooting game. We just sat around playing and laughing, waiting for our mother who would never show up for us.

"You see anyone suspicious?" Thalia asked, snapping me out of my flash back. She was trying to look subtle about checking everyone out.

"Uh, no," I answered. "But that guy needs new pants," I said, eyeing some teenager that must have been here since the seventies.

Thalia nudged me. "I think I've seen that kid in one of my dreams before. I think he's working with Michael."

I casually glanced at the kid. He kind of looked like me with his dark hair, but his eyes were lighter and he was paler. Plus I was taller than that kid when I was his age. I think he was about fourteen. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's him." She tugged on my arm. "Come on." We slowly walked over to him, keeping an eye to make sure that he didn't have anyone around right now. "Hey," Thalia greeted him happily, trying to seem like any other excited kid that was here.

The kid's eyes widened, but not a second later he relaxed. "Let's cut all the crap," he said harshly. Well, as harshly as he could. He seemed a little scared of us. I wonder if he even wanted to be a part of this. I bet not.

"Alright, man. What's going on? What do you guys want?" I asked him.

"Olympus _will_ fall this time," he threatened.

"Rob," Thalia said sternly. "Wh-"

She was cut off when Rob drew his sword and swung at us, missing and, instead, smashing a video game to the right of Thalia. This kid was so going to get it. I grabbed my sword from the shadows and blocked his next blow. He swung again and I had to jump out of the way to avoid getting cut. This kid was trained better than I suspected.

Thalia already had Aegis and her spear out. She lunged at him and he ran. We ran after him, pushing past the other kids in the hotel- who, apparently, didn't seem to care that there was a fight going on. Rob led us on a wild goose chase until we reached a door that was labeled as leading to the roof. Funny, I don't remember this door. Then again, I didn't really explore _all_ of Lotus during my last stay.

"We got company," Thalia announced. I looked down the hall to see about ten guys running down the hall towards us. I didn't check to see if they were with the hotel or with Michael, I just threw open the door and we raced up the stairs and went through another door to finally reach the roof.

I slammed the door behind us, knowing we had seconds to get out of here. "If we jump off I can cushion our fall," I told Thalia.

"How?" she asked hysterically.

Damn, I had forgotten about her fear of heights. I'm not even sure if she knows that I know about that. Percy's the one who told me. "I can get rid of some of the hard dirt, so we land on the softer dirt. The most injury we'll get is scratches and some bruises. It's the best shot we've got."

"No." Thalia looked over the side of the building.

"Thalia, they're coming. We have to get out!"

She tore her gaze away from the ground and looked at me. "I can fly us down."

I hesitated. "Thals, I don't know about that."

"Why not? I'm a daughter of Zeus. It's in my blood."

"I know it is, but you're terrified of heights-"

"How'd you know about that?" she asked.

"-and we don't even know if you have the energy for it," I argued, ignoring her question.

"I bet I do," she argued. "Why wouldn't I?"

I thought of my first attempts at shadow traveling. "You don't know how hard it is to get used to something like that. The first couple of times you do it, you use more energy than you will when you get used to it."

"Who cares, let's just go." I dropped my sword and she put her weapons away, preparing to jump. She grabbed my hand and we started to run towards the edge. I realized something at the last moment and grabbed her around the waist to pull her back at the last moment. "What are you doing?" she screamed. I had probably just scared her to death making her think that she was going to fall. Oops.

"You're dad is going to kill me if I get up in the air."

Thalia glanced at the sky worriedly. "We won't be that high up, it won't count." I couldn't tell who she was trying to convince- me or her.

"Where's a shadow?" I asked impatiently.

"There." Thalia pointed to one that was near the door. Otherwise, we were out of luck for finding another one. Well, besides our own and I couldn't use those.

The door swung open to reveal a dark figure with about nine more behind it. Thalia yanked my hand and we ran to the edge again, but we weren't fast enough. Just as we were about to jump off four of the guys pulled us the ground. We were trapped.

**Thalia's POV**

I hit the ground and was quickly tied up. "A rope, are you kidding me?" I screamed at them. I fought to stay free, but there were too many of them and they didn't seem to mind being shocked. I tried shocking them even harder. That got one to flinch, but the others just tied faster and let go. Every time I tried to loosen the ropes one of them pulled it even tighter. This was getting nowhere.

"Get the fuck off!" I heard Nico shout from somewhere to my left. I caught sight of a guy tying another rope around Nico. As if that was going to keep him under control.

A hand wrapped around my arm and yanked me up so that I was standing up to face four…teenagers. What the hell? "Aren't you a little young to work here?" I asked one of them.

He ignored me. "Take him," he nodded to Nico, "down to the car." Six of the guys dragged him away as Nico shouted at them and fought to get free. I couldn't tell if he was shouting something to me as well. "Nico!" I screamed over and over until the one (he must have been the one in charge) clamped his hand over my mouth.

"Stop fighting," he demanded. He could have been attractive with his auburn hair and hazel eyes, but now he was too much of a jackass. I kicked him in the nuts and he clenched his jaw. "Take her," his voice was strained," down to our room."

Two of the guys held onto my arms while one walked behind me. A million things went through my mind, but one that I was most afraid of was whether they were going to rape me or not. I wouldn't put it past them.

"Open the door," the guy on my right said to the guy on my left. I hadn't realized that we were already here. We walked inside to a big suite and I was shoved down into a seat at a table in the middle of the room. The three idiots sat down on seats to the sides of me.

The "leader" of them stepped in to the room shortly afterwards and sat down across from me. "You going to be give me your name or should I just call you dumbass?" I asked, doing my best to keep my voice from shaking.

"Call me John," he said. I rolled my eyes. _What a great fake name_, I thought to myself. _Very original._ "I'm going to make you a deal, okay?" I didn't answer. "I'm going to tell you a secret and you do the same for me. Deal?" Again, I didn't answer. But I was a bit curious now. I wonder what lie he was going to make up now.

"Alright then. Do you ever wonder if Hades killed you for more than just being born?" he asked. Now I was confused. Hades killed me because I was born and he was angry that my dad had killed his love, right? Or _was_ there more to it than that?

John chuckled. "You are now, huh? Well, you should. Hades had more of a reason. Trust me." Which was a pretty stupid thing to say seeing as he was holding me prisoner. "He doesn't like his children's power being taken away." I rolled my eyes now. This guy was bullshitting me for sure. "No, no. Hear me out. Did Nico ever mention a girl named Veronica?"

A chill ran up my spine. How did this guy know about that? Have they been watching us more closely than I thought? "Yeah, I thought so. Well, guess what? You are Veronica." I bit down on my tongue. I shouldn't say anything. I won't give this guy any satisfaction of knowing that he's freaking me out or confusing me because everything he's saying right now is a lie.

"You're reincarnated." He laughed. "You're gaining more power as we speak. You've had it all along, but you haven't been able to use it until now. Back when Nico was just a kid, you sucked some of his power right up. Not enough to seriously harm him, but mixed with your power now you could be a threat to Olympus. You better watch what you do. If you scare them badly enough they may just kill you."

Against my better judgment, I asked him, "How is it possible for me to have Nico's power?"

"What did Nico tell you? That he kissed Veronica when he was nine? Yeah, well, he remembers it as something that just happened when, really, it was after he saved her- you. I won't go into details, but you died and he saved you before you- your soul- reached the gates of the Underworld. You were back to normal a couple of seconds later with the exception of having a part of him in your soul. See, Veronica was a mortal, but once you chose to be reborn and you became a demigod, Hades realized what you had inside of you. He didn't like it."

I thought of my last meeting with Hades. Had he known? My temper started to flare. He probably did. I was alive again and now he was determined to kill me once and for all. No wonder he had acted so odd. Hades wasn't that nice. I should have remembered that he was such a good liar!

"You're just being controlled by Hades. You're like his weapon."

I stopped him before he could offer me to join them. "I would be like your weapon as well. You think I would actually join you?"

"You don't know how to control that power. You're going to get sick from it. Khione could help you."

"Yeah, right. As if I would let her," I sneered.

John shook his head. "You need help. But now I've told you my secret, so it's your turn. Where does your daddy keep his master bolt now that he's already had it stolen once before?"

I gave him an answer to get him off my back. "I wouldn't know. I'm not close to my father."

"I need you to find out. There will be a prize for you," he offered.

"Yeah, right," I snarled at him.

"We will train you to use your powers; to master them. You will have control and you won't have to deal with your father anymore."

They were trying to get to my weakness. I wouldn't let them. I knew that I would get nothing out of it. "I'm done speaking to you." My voice was hard and ice cold.

John's gaze hardened. "Fine, we'll take what we need and leave. This is not the last that you will see of us," he warned.

Before I could respond, a rag closed over my mouth and my world went black.

**A/N: :DD I UPDATED FINALLY! Aren't you so proud? :3 I missed you, my lovelies. Hugs and kisses for everyone. :*:*:***

**I hope you like this twist in my story. I've been trying to find a way to write it and I finally settled on this. Crazy, right? xD **

**Also, can we skip the "I thought you were dead!" "I thought you stopped the story!" "Where were you?" comments? And please read the note at the beginning of the first chapter. It's kind of important. Thanks, dears.**

**So anyway, I was looking through my story and just two dumb mistakes that I made- I'm sure there are more- and just…wow.**

"**Without warning, I had an epiphany."** **…..What the hell was I thinking? Honestly? Epiphanies are supposed to happen without warning. -_-**

"**THEIR A WHOLE NEW SERIES!" …. D: WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?**

**Yeah, so please excuse those. :P I'm skipping on personal updates. Just know that I didn't update for a while because I didn't have inspiration and I was going through some hard times.**

**Just a little side note here: I am a beta and I would be happy to beta for any of you who need one. If you just want some help with ideas you can send me a message and I'll do my best to help. Or if you just want to talk I'm always open to that as well. xD**

**True fact: My uncle works for EA games. :3**

**Question time! :D**

**Gods don't have blood so isn't it Zeus' ichor that runs along with her mother's blood through her veins?****I know they don't have blood (I planned this part out, I promise), but Thalia is still identified as his daughter so if she married someone who had a bad image or something Zeus would be embarrassed that Thalia could be traced back to him. That's why Aphrodite said "technically." She was just making it easier for Thalia to understand.**

**I thought Michal Yew died? He did. The Keys of Hades are used to trap a soul in the Underworld or release a soul back into the world. Michael was released. There will be more on that in later chapters.**

**Questions for you guys:**

**How have you all been lately? (My answer: Before, really bad. Now, so much better.)**

**When's your spring break? Any plans? (My answer: This week only. :P I'm going out with friends, but I'm not going away to any place special.)**

**You guys get to ask me questions whether they be personal, random, about this story, about upcoming stories or about any other story that I've written. Ask away my dears. :)**

**Thank you for sticking with me through this story. I love you guys and I'll try and update more often. Till next time: ciao! **


	15. Author's Note Goodbye

**A/N: Hello readers that are still with me. This story has been going downhill- even thought it wasn't that great to begin with. :/ Any who, I'm going to be ending it for now. Maybe I'll start it again some other time or rewrite it this summer (I really would like to rewrite it), but for now I'm going to focus on other stories that I want to finish. Thank you so, so much for everything! I mean 17,380 hits, 336 reviews, 88 favourites, 82 alerts, and even having it added to someone else's community on here is just unreal. This story and the reviews from you guys have helped me so much with my writing. Thanks so much again and hopefully any of you who decide to read my other work will enjoy it. **

**R.I.P. Valentine's Day **


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